Counting the many

the origins and limits of supermajority rule

Supermajority rules govern many features of our lives in common: from the selection of textbooks for our children's schools to residential covenants, from the policy choices of state and federal legislatures to constitutional amendments. It is usually assumed that these rules are not only ...

The legal foundations of inequality

constitutionalism in The Americas, 1776-1860

The long revolutionary movements that gave birth to constitutional democracies in the Americas were founded on egalitarian constitutional ideals. They claimed that all men were created equal with similar capacities and also that the community should become self-governing. Following the first constitutional debates that took ...

Democracy and the limits of self-government

The political institutions under which we live today evolved from a revolutionary idea that shook the world in the second part of the eighteenth century: that a people should govern itself. Yet if we judge contemporary democracies by the ideals of self-government, equality and liberty ...

Controlling governments

voters, institutions, and accountability

This book studies the extent to which citizens control government. The chapters discuss what guides voters at election time. why governments survive, and how institutions modify the power of the people over politicians. The questions addressed include whether ideology or ethnic identity undermine the capacity ...

Democracy and the rule of Law