Dimensions and dilemmas: public participation in constitution-making in post-war settings

ABSTRACT Public participation is considered an essential ingredient in contemporary constitution-making processes. In this article, I am concerned with the implications of these assumptions in states that can be categorized, broadly, as post-war. Where an armed conflict has ceased, but a political solution to the conflict has not been reached, a state may be categorized as “post-war”. Focusing on Nepal, Sri Lanka, and to some extent Myanmar, I ask the following questions: How should the emerging norm of public participation in constitution-making be understood and applied? What approaches are most useful in dealing with the dimensions of public participation in constitution-making in states that are post-war? I argue that six dilemmas arise in public participation in constitution-making. They are 1) conflict resolution and state formation, 2) democratization, 3) transparency and accountability, 4) the transnational dynamic, 5) constitutional literacy, and 6) constraints of resources and time.