Constitutionalism, Legitimacy, and Power

Nineteenth-Century Experiences

Edited by Kelly L Grotke and Markus J Prutsch

Examines constitutional histories of Europe and beyond from a comparative and transnational historical perspective
Provides a reinterpretation of conventional narratives of nineteenth-century constitutionalism
Permits comparisons between individual national case studies and their respective peculiarities in a broader European and international framework
Provides for a critical understanding of nineteenth-century constitutionalism as a terrain clearly marked by historical complexity, plurality, and contingency

Constitutionalism, Legitimacy, and Power

Nineteenth-Century Experiences

Edited by Kelly L Grotke and Markus J Prutsch

Description

If one counts the production of constitutional documents alone, the nineteenth century can lay claim to being a 'constitutional age'; one in which the generation and reception of constitutional texts served as a centre of gravity around which law and politics consistently revolved. This volume critically re-examines the role of constitutionalism in that period, in order to counter established teleological narratives that imply a consistent development from absolutism towards inclusive, participatory democracy. Various aspects of constitutional histories within and outside of Europe are examined from a comparative, transnational, and multidisciplinary historical perspective, organized around five key themes. The first part looks at constitutions as anti-revolutionary devices, and addresses state building, monarchical constitutionalism, and restorations. The second part takes up constitutions and the justification of new social inequalities, focusing on women's suffrage, human rights, and property. The third part uses individual country studies to take on questions of how constitutions served to promote nationalism. The use of constitutions as instruments of imperialism is covered in the fourth part, and the final part examines the ways that constitutions function simultaneously as legal and political texts.

These themes reflect a certain scepticism regarding any easy relationship between stated constitutional ideals and enacted constitutional practices. Taken together, they also function as a general working hypothesis about the role of constitutions in the establishment and maintenance of a domestically and internationally imbalanced status quo, of which we are the present-day inheritors. More particularly, this volume addresses the question of the extent to which nineteenth-century constitutionalism may have set the stage for new forms of domination and discrimination, rather than inaugurating a period of 'progress' and increasing equality.

Constitutionalism, Legitimacy, and Power

Nineteenth-Century Experiences

Edited by Kelly L Grotke and Markus J Prutsch

Introduction
1: Constitutionalism, Legitimacy, and Power: Nineteenth-Century Experiences, Kelly L Grotke and Markus J Prutsch
Constitutions as Anti-Revolutionary Devices
2: A Nineteenth-Century 'Truman Doctrine' avant la lettre? Constitutional Liberty Abroad and the Parliamentary Debate About British Foreign Policy from Castlereagh to Palmerston, Horst Dippel
3: State Building by Means of Constitution in the Italian Constitutional Monarchy, Anna Gianna Manca
4: 'Monarchical Constitutionalism' in Post-Napoleonic Europe: Concept and Practice, Markus J Prutsch
5: Restorations and Constitutions, Volker Sellin
Constitutions and the Justification of New Social Inequalities
6: Rethinking Women's Suffrage in the Nineteenth Century: Local Government and Entanglements of Property and Gender in the Austrian Half of the Habsburg Monarchy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, Birgitta Bader-Zaar
7: Constitution, Ownership, and Human Rights, Olivier Beaud
8: Constitutionalism, Inheritance, and Orders of Property. Land Laws in Nineteenth-Century Britain and Germany, Monika Wienfort
Constitutions as Promoters of Nationalism
9: 'Equality among the Nationalities' and the Peoples (Volksstämme) of the Habsburg Empire, Brigitte Mazohl
10: 'Long Live Sultan Abdülaziz, Long Live the Nation, Long Live The Constitution...', Aylin Koçunyan
11: The Norwegian Constitution of 1814 between European Restoration and Liberal Nationalism, Dag Michalsen
12: Ariadne's Thread: Navigating Postcolonial Spanish America's Labyrinth through Constitution Building in New Granada (1809-1812), Francisco A Ortega
Constitutions as Instruments of Imperialism
13: The Suspension of Constitutionalism in the Heart of Darkness, Felix Hanschmann
14: Modernizing Heterogeneous Empire: the Fundamental Laws of 1906 and the Incorporation of the Grand Duchy of Finland, Tatiana Khripachenko
15: Visions of Constitutionalism: The Implementation of Representative Institutions in the British Colonies, Thibault Guilluy
16: 'The most decorous veil which legal ingenuity can weave': The British Annexation of New Zealand (1840), Paul McHugh
Constitutions as Legal and Political Texts
17: What is a Constitution? What is Constitutional History?, Olivier Jouanjan
18: Egon Zweig and the Intellectual History of Constituent Power, Duncan Kelly
19: Unintended Democracy: Parliamentary Reform in the UK, Jo Eric Khushal Murkens

Constitutionalism, Legitimacy, and Power

Nineteenth-Century Experiences

Edited by Kelly L Grotke and Markus J Prutsch

Author Information

Edited by Kelly L Grotke, Researcher, Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights, University of Helsinki, and Markus J Prutsch, Researcher, European Parliament

Kelly L Grotke received her PhD in European history from Cornell University in 2006, where she focused on eighteenth-century German intellectual history and the development of natural law theory. She is affiliated with the Erik Castrén Institute at the University of Helsinki, where she was also a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Research Project Europe 1815-1914 between 2009-2013. She is currently completing a manuscript on the decline of natural law and the rise of logic in the nineteenth century.; Markus J Prutsch holds degrees in History and Political Science. He received his PhD from the European University Institute Florence, specializing in political history and theory with main focus on post-Napoleonic constitutional transfer processes. Fellow at the University of Helsinki between 2009 and 2012, funded by the European Research Council and working on the phenomenon of 'Modern Caesarism', he is now senior investigator and research administrator at the European Parliament.

Contributors:

Birgitta Bader-Zaar, Universität Wein
Olivier Beaud, Université Panthéon-Assas Paris II
Horst Dippel, Universität Kassel
Kelly L Grotke, Erik Castrén Institute, University of Helsinki
Thibault Guilluy is at the Université Panthéon-Assas Paris II
Felix Hanschmann, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
Olivier Jouanjan, Université de Strasbourg and Universität Freiburg im Breisgau
Duncan Kelly, Jesus College, University of Cambridge
Tatiana Khripachenko, Central European University
Aylin Koçunyan, European University Institute, Florence
Anna Gianna Manca, Università degli studi di Trento
Brigitte Mazohl, Universität Innsbruck
Paul McHugh, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge
Dag Michalsen, University of Oslo
Jo Eric Khushal Murkens, London School of Economics
Francisco A Ortega, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Markus J Prutsch, European Parliament
Volker Sellin, Universität Heidelberg
Monika Wienfort, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin