Constitutionalism
The seventeenth century, which witnessed
the development of absolute monarchy,
also saw the appearance of the
constitutional state. While France solved the
question of sovereignty with
the absolutist state, England evolved toward the
constitutional state. If we
could assign a very simple definition of the term of
the term
constitutionalism, it would be the limitation of government by
law.
Constitutionalism implies a very delicate balance between the
authority and
power of government, on the one hand, and the rights and
liberties of the
subjects, on the other. In essence, the law is embodied by a
set of precepts and
principles – a constitution. A nation’s constitution may
be written or
unwritten. It may be embodied in one basic document,
occasionally revised by
amendment or judicial decision, like the Constitution
of the United States. It
also may be partly written and partly unwritten and
include parliamentary
statutes, judicial decisions, and a body of traditional
procedures and practices
(like the English constitution). Regardless of
whether it is written or
unwritten, a constitution gets its binding force
from the government’s
acknowledgment that it must respect that constitution –
that is, that the
state must govern according to the laws. Likewise, in this
state, the people
look on the laws and the constitution as the protector of
their rights, liberty,
and property. Modern constitutional governments may
take either a republican or
a monarchical form. In a constitutional republic,
the sovereign power resides in
the electorate and is exercised by the
electorate’s representatives. In a
constitutional monarchy, a king or queen
serves as the head of state and
possesses some residual political authority,
but again the ultimate, or
sovereign, power rests in the electorate. The
constitutional government at this
time period has sometimes been perceived to
be the same as the democratic form.
However, such is definitely not the
case. In a complete democracy, all the
people have the right to participate
either directly or indirectly (through
their elected representatives) in the
government of the state. Democratic
government, therefore, is intimately tied
up with the voting populace. When
constitutionalism came into fruition, most
men could not vote until around the
late nineteenth century; and women
weren’t given the right to vote until the
twentieth century. Consequently,
although constitutionalism developed in the
seventeenth century, full
democracy was achieved only in very recent times.