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5 - The Right to Effective Self-Government

from Part II - What Are Constitutions For?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2022

Vicki C. Jackson
Affiliation:
Harvard Law School, Massachusetts
Yasmin Dawood
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

Protecting individual rights is a core feature of democratic constitutionalism. The centralization of the means of coercion gave rise to the Hobbesian dilemma, the fear that this enormous power might be abused unless it be effectively controlled. In addition to dividing power among different branches of government or sharing it between the federation and its units, constitutions have fortified individual rights with judicial review and enforcement mechanisms against the executive branch to rein in state power.

Proposing a collective right to effective self-government sits oddly with a vision that pitches free individuals against an all-powerful state. Such a right can, however, be justified on two interrelated grounds. First, in the absence of effective protection by a state, individual civil and political rights remain empty declarations. Stateless people, Hannah Arendt has taught us, are the most vulnerable; they have no legal rights and no way of seeking protection as a matter of right.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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