Module description
The French Revolution and triumph of the concept of popular sovereignty can be viewed as representing the political equivalent of splitting the atom. Positively, the immense energies released could be harnessed for a variety of purposes, from waging war to providing welfare. Negatively, they could do immense damage unless contained within political structures. Europeans, from French revolutionaries to the nation builders of the 1860s and 1870s, struggled to find constitutions that would achieve these ends.
This module looks at constitutions of the period. Teaching is organised in ten two-hour seminars. Eight of these are grouped into four pairs, arranged chronologically and illustrating developments over time and in different nations. The first seminar in each pair provides an introduction to the political context in which a particular constitution – whose text is then examined in detail the following week – came into being. The remaining two seminars include an opening seminar that sets out the main themes, and a concluding seminar that returns to these themes and makes comparisons between national traditions and also assesses developments over time.
The overall aim of this module is to analyse, within a comparative international context, the interplay between political ideas, everyday politics, political structures, and political culture. Chronologically, it spans the period from when no European state possessed a constitution to when the vast majority did. The module is centred on a close-reading of European constitutional texts, which are readily available, both in printed form and electronically, and in English translation as well as in their original languages. These texts will be supplemented by a mass of secondary sources, including publications in French and German as well as in English.
Assessment details
1 x 3,500 words essay (100%)
Teaching pattern
10 x 2 hour seminars (weekly)