Political Constitutionalism: A Genealogy

This essay offers a genealogy of the UK’s political constitution from the seventeenth century to the present, noting how it has drawn on different ideas and taken different forms over time, and highlighting the contingent nature of its current representative and parliamentary character. It identifies three forms of political constitutionalism over this period, and the emergence of a fourth: the mixed constitution of the sovereignty of 'King in Parliament', that emerged in the 17th century and received its canonical expression with Montesquieu and then Blackstone in the eighteenth century; the adaptation of this account to the primacy of the Commons in the theory of parliamentary government developed by Hume, Burke and Dicey; the association of parliamentary sovereignty with representative democracy in the twentieth century; and its recent challenge by a theory of popular sovereignty. Political constitutionalism is typically associated with the third form. However, a genealogy allows one to see how at different times the idea has been composed by different elements and been subject to contestation and debate - as is the case now. As a result, rather than viewing political constitutionalism as doomed or inadequate, and destined to be replaced by legal constitutionalism, it becomes possible to rethink political constitutionalism in different ways appropriate to new circumstances.