Konstitution som konsten att börja om

Abstract

Constitution as the Art of Beginning Anew. The negative outcome of the referenda on the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands raises challenging questions about the nature of constitution-making. How does one begin a democracy? Does it matter who writes the constitution? The present essay addresses the distinction between the constituent and the constituted power, seen through the eyes of three thinkers: Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Sieyès and Rogers M. Smith. It looks at Arendt's notion of beginning, Sieyès's idea of the nation as the constituent power behind government, and Smith's proposal of a people constituted through political contestation.