Theorizing Socialist Constitutional Change

This chapter theorizes socialist constitutional change, using a holistic approach, which integrates conceptualist, functionalist, causalist, and institutional accounts. Conceptually, it adopts a non-binary approach to constitution and constitutional change, seeking to accentuate and situate the formal constitution and formal constitutional change within the broader constitutional order. Functionally, socialist constitutional change can be characterized as progressive constitutional change. Epistemologically rooted in Marxist progressivism, the function of constitutional change in socialist countries is to facilitate the active role of the party-state in improving living conditions of local residents. This progressive constitutional change is driven by a range of top-down and bottom-up factors: leadership change; the party’s changing policy for social and economic development; constitutional and economic globalization; and social demands and social economic transition. The legal form for constitutional change is varied, including: implicit replacement through amendment, explicit replacement through amendment, ordinary replacement, and ordinary amendment. The chapter concludes by categorizing five variations of the socialist models of progressive constitutional change: universal, integration, reservation, exceptional, and personal.