The Authority of a Constitution

Knowing the functions a constitution performs explains why societies have constitutions at all, but it doesn't yet tell us how much authority any particular constitution actually carries. Three further questions probe that deeper issue: what exactly counts as "the" constitution of a country in the first place, how effective is it in practice — does it genuinely shape people's lives or does it merely exist on paper — and is the constitution actually just. The following three sections (Mode of promulgation, The substantive provisions of a constitution, and Balanced institutional design) work through the first two of these quest …