THE CONSTITUTIONAL ESSENTIALS OF POLITICAL LIBERALISM: SECURING DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY

Introduction The brochure for the conference frames the questions for our panel on The Constitutional Essentials of Political Liberalism as "What are the implications of Rawls's conceptions of justice as fairness and political liberalism for constitutional theory? Might his account of constitutional essentials provide a useful guiding framework for conceiving the scheme of basic liberties embodied in the American Constitution? How thin are the commitments of our Constitution as compared with our richer commitments to constitutional justice and political justice? What are the implications of Rawls's work for theory of judicial review and for enforcement of constitutional rights and obligations outside the courts through legislative and executive institutions?" My Article will focus on the first and second questions. But it will have implications for the third and fourth as well. The Article has three parts. In Part I, I outline a constitutional constructivism that is analogous to the political constructivism that Rawls develops in Political Liberalism. 1 I reprise previous work, in which I have developed a constitutional theory with two fundamental themes: first, securing the basic liberties that are preconditions for deliberative democracy, and second, securing the basic liberties that are preconditions for deliberative autonomy. 2 In prior work, I have elaborated upon the second fundamental theme. 3 In Part II, I sketch certain aspects of the first fundamental theme. I take up the commitments to guaranteeing the fair value of the equal political liberties and protecting free and informed political processes. I explore what the structure ...