Defending the Political Constitution

Richard Bellamy is Professor of Political Science at University College, London (UCL), a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and the British Academy (FBA), and a Member of the Academia Europaea (MAE). He was educated at Cambridge University and the European University Institute. The author of 11 monographs, his research ranges from historical studies of Italian political thought post 1700, for which he was awarded the Serena Medal in 2012, to the development of a republican account of democracy, citizenship and constitutionalism that combines analytical legal, social and political philosophy with comparative politics. His book Political Constitutionalism: A Republican Defence of the Constitutionality of Democracy (CUP, 2007) won the 2009 Spitz Prize.

• Part 1. Political Constitutionalism as Democracy 1: Rights as Democracy 2: The Rule of Law as the Democratic Rule of Persons 3: Checks and Balances as Democracy: Political Equality and Majority Rule in the Democratic Mixed Constitution Part 2. The Rights Challenge-Democracy as Rights 4: Domestic Bills of Rights: Political Constitutionalism and the Human Rights Act 5: International Human Rights Conventions: Political Constitutionalism and the European Convention on Human Rights Part 3. The Judicial Challenge-Democracy through Courts 6: Must Politics Rest on Law? 7: Democracy through Courts? Part 4. The Populist Challenge: Democracy as the Will of the People 8: Populism and the Democratic Challenge: Does Political Constitutionalism Facilitate or Counter Democratic Backsliding 9: Referendums and the Case of Brexit: Towards a Populist Constitutionalism? 10: Taking Back Control? The Political Constitution of the EU

Bellamy's rigorous response to a range of counterarguments, and his comprehensive examination of the challenges facing political constitutionalism in contemporary time make this book a timely contribution. This book is well-suited to legal philosophers, political theorists, and constitutional scholars, as well as to students and a general audience interested in democratic theory, given Bellamy's clear and accessible style of argumentation.