Organic Constitutionalism: Rousseau, Hegel and the Constitution of Society

Abstract

In this paper I discuss the views of Rousseau and Hegel that constitutions must be organically connected to the people the documents are supposed to represent, and the societies those people constitute. This is contrary to the prevailing view of modern constitutionalism, which seems to be that a universal model can (and perhaps should) be adequate for any society, in any place, and in any time. Following Rousseau and Hegel, I suggest that this prevailing view is dangerous. I propose, as an alternative, that constitutional projects in new or incipient nations should be situationally and contingently determined based on the cultural, legal, moral, and political history of the people a constitution is supposed to represent.

Keywords: Constitutionalism, Modern Constitutionalism, Rousseau, Hegel, Pluralism