Democracy despite Itself

Abstract

This book advances a liberal normative theory of militant democracy to address the existential threat to democracy posed by ‘legal revolution’. ‘Militant democracy’ refers to the use of measures of constitutional entrenchment to defend democracy. Legal revolution occurs when democratically elected actors use legal procedures to undermine democratic constitutional essentials, evident today in countries like Hungary, India, and Turkey. This book develops its normative theory by combining John Rawls’ political liberalism and Carl Schmitt’s constitutional theory to argue that basic liberal rights are an essential part of the democratic constitutional framework and that the state has the right to defend its democratic political identity against internal challenges. It argues that militant democracy is institutionalized by three key mechanisms: explicit unamendability, political rights restrictions, and guardianship by a constitutional court, exemplified by the 1949 German Basic Law. It concludes that incorporating these defensive measures is a crucial safeguard of democracy against the threat of legal revolution, offering a model for the design of democratic constitutions in the future.