Revolution och konstitution: om konstituerande makt

Abstract

Revolution and Constitution: On Constituent Power. The people's constituent power was among the most central ideas of the democratic revolutions during the late 1 8 t h century,
at the time intrinsically related to the dilemma of liberation and freedom: the risk that freedom is lost unless the revolutions are institutionalized, and the risk that the
constitution comes to embody a conditioned freedom unless, liberation is pursued. This dilemma was central to the three conceptions of constituent power discussed in
this article: (1) the Sans-Culottes' view of constituent power as permanendy residing in the people and tied to liberation, (2) the radical democratic mechanisms of controlling
legislative and executive power exemplified by the constitution of Pennsylvania, and (3) the American federalists' argument that constituent power is the expression of
the people's will at the moment of adopting the constitution, after which it resides in the background and loose its importance. These ideas of constituent power are discussed
and then related to the contemporary debate about it in the context of constitutional democracy.