Ideologies of Political Constitutionalism

For many political constitutionalists, the ordinary democratic process should be the constitution; constitutional entrenchment and strong-form judicial review should be avoided. But how is ordinary democratic politics understood by political constitutionalists? To answer this question, this article engages in an interpretative inquiry to delineate four distinct ideological readings of political constitutionalism—democratic socialist, liberal, republican and conservative—that are alive within the existing literature. It does so to explain how these readings articulate subtly different understandings of ordinary democratic politics. In doing so, it reflects on how to identify political constitutionalist thought; how political constitutionalism can appeal to different ideologies; how ideologies have influenced the theory’s intellectual development; and the ideological conditions required to sustain a political constitution.