Ideologies of Political Constitutionalism

For many political constitutionalists, the ordinary democratic process
should be the constitution; constitutional entrenchment and strong-form judicial
review should be avoided. But how is ordinary democratic politics understood by
political constitutionalists? To answer this question, this article engages in an interpretative inquiry to delineate four distinct ideological readings of political constitutionalism—democratic socialist, liberal, republican and conservative—that are alive
within the existing literature. It does so to explain how these readings articulate subtly different understandings of ordinary democratic politics. In doing so, it reflects
on how to identify political constitutionalist thought, how political constitutionalism
can appeal to different ideologies; how ideologies have influenced the theory’s intellectual development; and the ideological conditions required to sustain a political
constitution.