Constitutional Theory as Cultural Problem

Edited by Xudong Zhang and David Pan

The challenges faced by the liberal democratic model of government in the twenty-first century have made constitutional theory into an urgent topic of global concern. While the constitutional state, as theory and practice in modern Europe, North America, and Asia, continues to be the common point of reference, its stability and legitimacy can no longer be taken for granted, thus requiring renewed thinking about its history and cultural foundations. This issue of Telos seeks to promote a sustained dialogue between scholars and thinkers from both the West and the non-Western world in an area defined by the intersection between critical theory and political philosophy.

Introduction
Xudong Zhang and David Pan

Constitutional Culture: Opening a Space between Law and Power
Paul W. Kahn

Epistemological Skepticism, Textual Skepticism, and the Role of Constitutions
Aryeh Botwinick

Constitution and Culture: The Unusual Case of Australia
Greg Melleuish

What Is the Second Estate?
Andrea Gadberry

State, Movement, People: Representation and Race in the Construction of Political Identity
David Pan

Constitutional Minimalism
Bernhard Schlink

Law and Revolution: The Impact of Soviet Legitimacy on Post-Soviet Constitutional Transformation
Andrey N. Medushevsky

Poetic Impositions: Japanese–U.S. Constitutional Problems of Peace and Tranquility
Loren Goodman

Constitutionalism and Sovereignty: On Constitutional Problems in Japan
Nakajima Takahiro

Constitution and Literariness: Takeuchi Yoshimi’s Critique of the Postwar Japanese Constitution
Qin Wang

Decentralization of Governance through the Restructuring and Devolution of Powers Entrenched under the Constitution of Nigeria
Michael C. Ogwezzy

Democratic and Republican Coups
Beau Mullen