Constitution Making the European Way

A growing branch of public choice goes under the heading of constitutional political economy. Under the constitutional political economy approach, the citizens write the constitution or contract creating the state, and then enter into a principal-agent relationship with those who fill the offices of the executive, legislative and judicial branches. Sovereignty in a constitutional democracy lies with the citizens. Although no constitution has ever been written by the citizens themselves, in some cases arguably those writes a constitution are representative of the citizens at large, and the constitution can be expected to correspond to what would be written under the ideal conditions posited by the political economy approach. This paper contrasts the European and American approaches to democracy and to constitution writing.