TY  - BOOK
AU  - Deseure,Brecht
AU  - Deseure,Brecht
AU  - Geenens,Raf
AU  - Sottiaux,Stefan
TI  - Sovereignty, Civic Participation and Constitutional Law: The People versus the Nation in Belgium
SN  - 9780367483593
PY  - 2021///
PB  - Taylor & Francis, Routledge [Imprint]
KW  - Constituent power
KW  - Belgium
KW  - Constitutional history
KW  - Constitutional law
KW  - Political participation
KW  - Representative government and representation
KW  - Sovereignty
KW  - Droit constitutionnel
KW  - Belgique
KW  - Gouvernement représentatif
KW  - Histoire constitutionnelle
KW  - Participation politique
KW  - Pouvoir constituant
KW  - Souveraineté
KW  - fast
KW  - Constitution: government and the state
KW  - thema
KW  - Constitutional and administrative law: general
KW  - HISTORY
KW  - Europe
KW  - General
KW  - bisacsh
KW  - Jurisprudence and general issues
KW  - Law: Human rights and civil liberties
KW  - Law
KW  - LAW
KW  - Civil Rights
KW  - Laws of specific jurisdictions and specific areas of law
KW  - Legal history
KW  - Philosophy and Religion
KW  - Philosophy
KW  - Political structure and processes
KW  - Politics and government
KW  - Social and political philosophy
KW  - Society and Social Sciences
KW  - sovereignty
KW  - aat
KW  - Topics in philosophy
KW  - law
N1  - Free-to-read
N2  - "This book brings recent insights about sovereignty and citizen participation in the Belgian Constitution to scholars in the fields of public law, history, and political theory. Throughout the Western world, there are increasing calls for greater citizen participation. Referendums, citizen councils, and other forms of direct democracy are considered necessary antidotes to a growing hostility towards traditional party politics. This book focuses on the Belgian debate, where the introduction of participatory politics has stalled because of an ambiguity in the Constitution. Scholars and judges generally claim that the Belgian Constitution gives ultimate power to the Nation, which can only speak through representation in parliament. In light of this, direct democracy would be an unconstitutional power grab by the current generation of citizens. This book critically investigates this received interpretation of the Constitution and, by reaching back to the debates among Belgium's 1831 founding fathers, concludes that it is untenable. The spirit, if not the text, of the Belgian Constitution allows for more popular participation than present-day jurisprudence admits. Combining new insights from law, history, and political science, this book is a showcase for continental constitutional theory. The questions it asks reverberate far beyond Belgium. The book provides a rare source of information on Belgium's 1831 Constitution, which was in its time seen as modern constitutionalism's greatest triumph which became a model for countless other constitutions. "
UR  - https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/47018
ER  -