This book examines the development of the theory and practice of constitutionalism, defined as a political system in which the coercive power of the state is controlled through a pluralistic distribution of political power. It explores the main venues of constitutional practice in ancient Athens, Republican Rome, Renaissance Venice, the Dutch Republic, seventeenth-century England, and eighteenth-century America.
From its beginning in Polybius' interpretation of the classical concept of "mixed government," the author traces the theory of constitutionalism through its late medieval appearance in the Conciliar Movement of church reform and in the Huguenot defense of minority rights. After noting its suppression with the emergence of the nation-state and the Bodinian doctrine of "sovereignty," the author describes how constitutionalism was revived in the English conflict between king and Parliament in the early Stuart era, and how it has developed since then into the modern concept of constitutional democracy.
One of our nation's leading interpreters of national security policymaking shows how public opinion, operating in democratic political systems, shapes and constrains decisions about national security. Bruce Russett maintains that elected leaders, and their supporters and rivals, must realize that foreign policy and security policy are largely determined by domestic politics; the political leader who ignores domestic politics finds it difficult to get things done internationally, risks repudiation at the polls, and fails to exploit real or symbolic successes abroad that could reinforce his standing at home.
Russett also debunks several Washington myths: that the public is too confused and ignorant about security issues to deserve influence over national security policy; that the public is easily manipulated; that public opinion is hopelessly volatile, swinging irrationally between indifference and hysteria, hawk and dove. He shows how electoral politics encourages tough talk and tough action; how policymaking and public opinion interact; how the public balances extremes of warmongering and appeasement; and how democratic political systems are prepared to compromise their differences with other democratic countries, to avoid making hard enemies of them.
Timely, insightful, almost an advanced primer for understanding national policymaking in our most challenging and frightening sphere, this book will be of interest to policymakers, journalists, legislators, and concerned readers in general.
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