Constitutionalism

Constitutionalism is the belief that government should have limited powers. The opposite of constitutionalism is absolutism. A constitution is a document or, rarely, a set of unwritten ideas, that creates a framework for a government to exist and function. In a constitutional government, sovereignty lies in the people who are governed, but in an absolutist government, sovereignty lies with the government, or monarch. Constitutionalism has also become associated with limited government and conservative political ideologies.

Background

Constitutionalism is one of many types of beliefs about the power and the limits of the government. Although constitutionalism is a common belief about the government in the modern world, it was much less common hundreds of years ago. Absolutism, the opposite of constitutionalism, was much more common in Europe during the 1200s to the 1600s. Absolutism is the idea that the ruler, or government, has absolute power over the people. Many people believed at this time that monarchs were in power because God wanted them to be. Because many people and scholars believed in the divine right of kings, which meant that monarchs had rights given to them by God, societies and governments often adhered to the monarch’s wishes. However, ideas about limiting government, which nearly always meant monarchs, developed over time. One of the most famous examples of such a development happened in England in 1689 when British monarchs William II and Mary II were forced to sign the Bill of Rights. The bill limited the power the monarchy had. Around the same time, philosopher John Locke began publishing work that would go on to greatly influence constitutionalism. Locke believed that individuals were born free, and they created governments to uphold laws and protect people’s rights. Nevertheless, many of Locke’s contemporaries still held absolutist ideas about government. For example, Thomas Hobbes believed that citizens gave up their right to freedom under an absolutist government but, in exchange, benefitted from the protection of the absolutist government.

Overview

Constitutionalism is the idea that a government has limited powers, and these powers are limited by constitutions. In the most general sense, a constitution is the framework that creates a government. So, technically, any modern government is a constitutional government because it has a framework that creates the government. However, in a more specific sense, a constitution is a document or detailed belief system that outlines the rules that governments have to follow. A constitution also defines the makeup of the government, listing the parts, duties, and responsibilities of the government.

Many scholars believe that constitutions must be written documents that clearly define the government. However, some argue that a constitution can be a set of ideas and principles and not a written document. The United Kingdom never created an official written constitution, though it does have multiple foundational documents, including the Magna Carta and 1689 Bill of Rights, that together help to form the basis of government.

Most constitutional governments adhere to the maxim “everything that is not granted is forbidden.” That means that unless a government power is expressly allowed in the constitution, the government is not allowed to have or exercise that particular power. Therefore, it is not legally possible for a government to take actions that go against a constitution or go outside what is allowed in the constitution.

Another important aspect of a constitutional government is that the government derives its power from the people it governs. Absolute monarchs ruled in their own way because they had no limit on their power. The people could not give consent to an absolutist government because the government itself held all the power. Yet, a constitutional government is one that has limits. A government cannot set its own limits. So, the limits of the government happen because the people being governed have sovereignty.

Constitutionalism affects all the powers of the government, including creating and enforcing laws and taxation. Another important aspect of constitutionalism is that the government’s laws are common. Even before governments began writing down every law and every consequence of breaking the law, governments used precedent to create common law practices. So, a person charged with stealing a loaf of bread could expect to face a similar consequence as another person who committed a similar crime. Absolutist governments are more likely to have arbitrary laws and punishments. Constitutionalism also requires that the government get permission to tax.

Often, constitutions impart limits on governments by explaining citizens’ rights. Many constitutions not only limit what government can do, but they also explain what people can do that the government cannot. For example, in the Bill of Rights, a key aspect of the US Constitution (1789), Americans are given the right to due process and the right to free speech. The Constitution limits what the government does by explaining what citizens can legally do. If the Constitution did not list these rights, the government could and would treat citizens differently.

Ideas related to constitutionalism began developing millennia ago, but the first constitution to fully form a new government was not written until the late 1700s. The United States became the first country to be founded with a written constitution that created the central government. The authors of the American Constitution were influenced by European ideas about constitutionalism, such as the Magna Carta (1215), the English Bill of Rights (1689), and by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy. Since the 1700s, numerous other countries have adopted constitutions and constitutional governments.

The meaning of the term constitutionalism varies among some groups. Some people have come to identify constitutionalism as having a small government. Although such limited-government ideas have become synonymous with modern constitutionalism, this belief is not a necessity for a government to be constitutional. The term constitutionalism has also become closely related to the idea of originalism, which is the idea that people reading the Constitution must strive to understand the exact intentions and meanings of the Founders rather than allowing for newer interpretations or evolving meanings.

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