Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T08:17:15.620Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Checks and Balances

Combining “Institutional Means and Personal Motives”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Roberto Gargarella
Affiliation:
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Get access

Summary

In this chapter, I demonstrate that the system of checks and balances, which was one of the fundamental innovations of modern constitutionalism, was also marked, from the beginning, by a strongly anti-democratic bias. This bias began -I maintain- with the pretense of balancing the “ambition” of the landowning minorities with the “ambition” of the indebted majorities. The choice was made to value political stability and social balance over democratic principles, which came at a very high cost. In this way, majority rule lost much of its meaning. Moreover, I claim that the system of checks and balances was conceived from a logic that is particularly worrying for those who defend a “conversational” or “deliberative” approach to democracy. I refer to the fact that the system was much more motivated to “avoid war” between factions than to promote dialogue between them. Thus -I claim- “constitutional dialogue” was possible, or at least not prevented by the institutional system erected, but the system certainly did not promote it and did in fact pose obstacles to it

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Checks and Balances
  • Roberto Gargarella, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Book: The Law As a Conversation among Equals
  • Online publication: 25 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009105682.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Checks and Balances
  • Roberto Gargarella, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Book: The Law As a Conversation among Equals
  • Online publication: 25 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009105682.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Checks and Balances
  • Roberto Gargarella, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Book: The Law As a Conversation among Equals
  • Online publication: 25 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009105682.010
Available formats
×