This book examines the development of the theory and practice of constitutionalism, defined as a political system
in which the coercive power of the state is controlled through a pluralistic distribution of political power. It
explores the main venues of constitutional practice in ancient Athens, Republican Rome, Renaissance Venice, the
Dutch Republic, seventeenth-century England, and eighteenth-century America. From its beginning in Polybius' interpretation
of the classical concept of "mixed government," the author traces the theory of constitutionalism through
its late medieval appearance in the Conciliar Movement of church reform and in the Huguenot defense of minority
rights. After noting its suppression with the emergence of the nation-state and the Bodinian doctrine of "sovereignty,"
the author describes how constitutionalism was revived in the English conflict between king and Parliament in the
early Stuart era, and how it has developed since then into the modern concept of constitutional democracy.
1. The Doctrine of Sovereignty
The Classical Doctrine of Sovereignty
The People as Sovereign
Parliament as Sovereign
Critics of Sovereignty
2. Athenian Democracy
Constitutional Development
The Athenian Political System
The Theory of the Athenian Constitution
The Doctrine of Mixed Government
The Constitutional Totalitarianism of Sparta
3. The Roman Republic
The Development of the Republic, and Its Fall
The Political System of the Republic
Theoretical Interpretation of the Republican System
4. Countervailance Theory in Medieval Law, Catholic Ecclesiology, and Huguenot Political Theory
Canon Law and Roman Law
Catholic Ecclesiology and the Conciliar Movement
The Huguenot Political Theorists
5. The Republic of Venice
Venice and Europe
The Venetian System of Government
Venetian Constitutionalism
Church and State
The Myth of Venice
Venice, Mixed Government, and Jean Bodin
6. The Dutch Republic
The Golden Age of the Dutch Republic
The Political History of the Republic, 1566-1814
The Republican Political System
Dutch Political Theory
7. The Development of Constitutional Government and Countervailance Theory in Seventeenth-Century England
Religious Toleration and Civic Freedom
The Roles of Parliament
"Mixed Government" and the Countervailance Model
The Early Stuart Era
From the Civil War to the Revolution of 1688
The Provenance of English Countervailance Theory
The Eighteenth Century, and Montesquieu
8. American Constitutionalism
The Political Theory of the American Revolution
The State Constitutions
The National Constitution
The Bill of Rights and the Judiciary
A Note on Provenance
9. Modern Britain
Archaic Remnants: The Monarchy and the House of Lords
The House of Commons and the Cabinet
The Bureaucracy
The Judiciary
Unofficial Political Institutions: Pressure Groups
Epilogue
References
Index
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