Politics of Constitutional Change in Industrial Nations

During the last two decades serious attempts to alter basic constitutional structures have taken place in many industrial nations, even in those often thought to have highly stable political institutions. In some cases, such as Belgium and Spain, far-reaching constitutional changes have been put in place; in others advocates of reform have achieved only partial victories or have been entirely frustrated. In all cases, controversy over the constitution has been intense, involving basic conceptions of legitimacy, representation, sovereignty and the purposes of the state. Constitutional politics often reveals much about political life of modern societies that is obscured in day-to-day events. The results of constitutional changes can significantly affect the distribution of power, the ability to manage conflict and the outcomes of policy debates. This book explores the dynamics of constitutional politics through case studies of Spain, Belgium, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, West Germany and Eastern Europe, including Poland, prepared by leading students of these countries. Other chapters draw out the more general patterns of constitutional politics, highlighting the pressures which lead to change, and the formidable obstacles confronting them.

KEITH BANTING is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. A Canadian, educated at Queen's University, Kingston, and Oxford University, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Policy Studies Institute in London and an Academic Visitor at the London School of Economics in 1979. From 1981 to 1983 he was Associate Director of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, Queen's University, Kingston.Keith Banting is the author of Poverty, Politics and Policy and The Welfare State and Canadian Federalism and the editor of And No One Cheered: Federalism, Democracy and the Constitution Act (with Richard Simeon).RICHARD SIMEON is Professor of Political Studies at Queen's University, Kingston, where he was Director of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations from 1976 to 1983. In 1983 he joined the staff of the Canadian Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Canada's Development Prospects as a Research Coordinator. He has held visiting appointments at the Universities of Essex and British Columbia.Richard Simeon is the author of Federal-Provincial Diplomacy and Small Worlds: Provinces and Parties in Canadian Political Life (with David Elkins) and the editor of Confrontation or Collaboration: Intergovernmental Relations in Canada Today, And No One Cheered: Federalism, Democracy and the Constitution Act (with Keith Banting) and Must Canada Fail?