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Constitutionalism, doctrine that a government’s authority is determined by a body of laws or constitution. Although constitutionalism is sometimes regarded as a synonym for limited government, that is only one interpretation and by no means the most prominent one historically.
10 sty 2001 · Constitutionalism is the idea, often associated with the political theories of John Locke and the founders of the American republic, that government can and should be legally limited in its powers, and that its authority or legitimacy depends on its observing these limitations.
Constitutionalism as a theory and in practice stands for the principle that there are—in a properly governed state—limitations upon those who exercise the powers of government, and that these limitations are spelled out in a body of higher law which is enforceable in a variety of ways, political and judicial.
This chapter offers a “thin” definition of constitutionalism, as involving majority rule (usually free and fair elections and sometimes other methods of reliably determining majority preferences), some entrenchment of constitutional provisions, judicial independence, and politicians and political parties as vehicles for organizing public ...
Constitutionalism is the constraining of government in order to better effectuate the fundamental principles of the political regime. It can be argued that in a sense (often associated with Aristotle) every country has a constitution.
Constitutional government is defined by the existence of a constitution—which may be a legal instrument or merely a set of fixed norms or principles generally accepted as the fundamental law of the polity—that effectively controls the exercise of political power.
Keith Whittington (1999a) argues that the American Constitution has a dual nature. The first aspect is the degree to which the Constitution acts as a binding set of rules that can be neutrally interpreted and enforced by the courts against government actors.
