The Goals of Constitutional Processes

This chapter starts from the fact that there is no generally accepted process for making a new constitution. Taking the overall objective to be democracy and, in societies severely divided along ethnic or religious lines, conflict reduction, it explains that constitutional processes can help to produce agreed rules of political behavior and help to prevent domination of one group by another. It then lays out an argument for inclusion, through elections, of representatives of all major social and ethnic groups, for deliberation rather than negotiation as the main method of proceeding, and for consensus (supplemented, where necessary, by compromise) as an important goal to be achieved. Inclusion in constitutional processes is associated with democratic outcomes, and there is evidence that consensus standards of decision produce higher quality deliberation. The aim is to produce democratic commitment on the part of the politicians who participate in the process, commitment that is more likely when consensus is achieved than it is when a constitution is produced mainly by bargaining and majoritarian processes.