Lessons for Emerging European Constitutionalism from the United States Constitution: Trigger Rules

McGinnis John O.
Additional contact information
McGinnis John O.: Yeshiva University

Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, 2001, vol. 11, issue 1, 20

Abstract: This essay offers some lessons from the history of the United States Constitution for constitutions for emerging democracies in Eastern Europe. The United States Constitution declined in efficacy over time because special interests eroded its restraints on rent-seeking. This essay seeks to consider solutions to prevent constitutional decline. It suggests that since special interests will try to dissolve constitutional restraints, the original constitution should itself contain trigger rulers imposing new restraints when certain events occur that suggest the old restraints are weakening. Thus in this essay I suggest creating constitutional provisions to spring into effect when the consequences of constitutional decline become apparent in the polity.Cet article met en avant quelques leçons puisées dans l'histoire de la constitution américaine pour les constitutions des démocraties naissantes de l'Europe Orientale. La constitution des Etats-Unis a perdu de son efficacité au fil du temps parce que les intérêts particuliers ont entamé les contraintes qui pesaient sur les activités de recherche de rente. Cet article essaye d'envisager des solutions pour contrecarrer le déclin constitutionnel. Il suggère que, puisque les intérêts particuliers essayent de dissoudre les contraintes constitutionnelles, la constitution devrait inclure, à l'origine même, des règles d'activation imposant de nouvelles contraintes quand certains évènements qui surviennent révèlent l'insuffisance des contraintes antérieures. Ainsi, dans cet article, l'auteur suggère la création de dispositions constitutionnelles qui sont activées quand les conséquences du déclin constitutionnel sont apparentes au niveau politique.

Keywords: Constitutionalism; Rent seeking; European Union; Constitution of United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2202/1145-6396.1002 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:jeehcn:v:11:y:2001:i:1:n:3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/jeeh/html

DOI: 10.2202/1145-6396.1002

Access Statistics for this article

Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines is currently edited by Pierre Garello

More articles in Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().