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Democracy Paradox

Donald Horowitz on the Formation of Democratic Constitutions

51 min • 28 september 2021

The most beautiful thing that happened in Indonesia, by the way, which was a polarized society along religious lines more than anything else, was that by the end of the proceedings, everybody knew what everybody else's problems were, what everyone else's constituencies wanted. They knew if X noticed that Y was making a demand, before long X figured out what was behind the demand and why Y had to make it and whether it was a real demand or whether it was made just for the sake of being on record.

Donald Horowitz

A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com or a short review of Constitutional Processes and Democratic Commitment here.

Donald Horowitz is the James B. Duke Professor of Law and Political Science Emeritus at Duke University.

Key Highlights Include

  • Accounts of constitutional formation in Tunisia, Indonesia, and Malaysia
  • The role of consensus
  • The challenges of negotiated constitutions
  • The need for an inclusive process
  • Why citizen participation is not always beneficial


Key Links

Constitutional Processes and Democratic Commitment  by Donald Horowitz

"Ethnic Power Sharing: Three Big Problems"  by Donald Horowitz in the Journal of Democracy

Reconsidering Democratic Transitions Francis Fukuyama, Donald Horowitz, Larry Diamond on YouTube


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