Leadership in a Constitutional Democracy
Leadership in a Constitutional Democracy
Modern democracies are mostly liberal democracies. Constitutionalism and the rule of law strengthen the hand of the democratic leader by establishing legitimate offices and by making leaders executors of an alternative, august source of authority, the law. Yet the liberal aspect of constitutionalism, in limiting authority, also limits leaders’ discretion. This in turn gives rise to a new judicial politics that constitutes a profound constraint on democratic leadership. Leaders in liberal-constitutional democracies thus have to contend with an extensive and sophisticated legal politics that permeates politics-as-usual, and may occasionally trump it.
Keywords: liberalism, law, constitutionalism, office, authority
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
