Democratic Crisis and Global Constitutional Law

Chris Thornhill is Professor in Law at the University of Manchester. His publications include A Sociology of Constitutions (2011), A Sociology of Transnational Constitutions (2016) and The Sociology of Law and the Global Transformation of Democracy (2018). His works have been translated into many languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. He is a member of the Academia Europaea.

• Introduction; 1. Democratic Subjects and Social Process; 2. Democracy and Militarization; 3. Democracy and Global Law; 4. Populism as Misunderstood Democracy; Conclusion.

'Now that the reinvention of democracy appears to be one of the most pressing public issues, especially in the face of rising populism, Christopher Thornhill's latest book is likely to bring about a radical renewal of the arguments. The author carries out an impressive long-term intellectual work, interrogating constitutions - as the foundational institutional arrangements making human togetherness possible - in late modernity. On this ground, he now invites us to approach - and to defend - democracy, taking it, less as the fruit of enlightened voluntary action, taking place in national polities, than essentially as the result of a global societal evolution. He also invites us to pay special attention, in the reconstruction of this evolution, to those institutions - national and global - where democratic subjectivity concretely developed. By giving emphasis, in this reconstruction, to the intriguing historical sequence of militarization and demilitarization of citizenship, the book offers a timely, energetic, and provocative input in an urgent and indispensable debate.' Pierre Guibentif, Dinâmia'CET-ISCTE, Lisbon, Portugal, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme Paris-Saclay, France