The Study of Constitutional Debates through Political Philosophy and Constitutional History: A Line of Research

Abstract

To enquire into constitutional debates through arguments of political philosophy put forward in constituent assemblies is valuable for two reasons. First, it allows to understand political philosophy from an applied argumentative perspective in political institutions. In constitutional debates, parliamentary representatives shape the institutions and practices of constitutional regimes, besides revamping the political vocabulary. Setting up constitutional states evinces the historical controversies that have affected both parliamentary regimes of the nineteenth century and representative democracies since the beginning of the twentieth century. Second, the argumentative analysis of constitutional debates that have led to the passing of constitutions deviates from typical constitutional history. It does so insofar as it makes it possible to investigate both diachronically and synchronically their conceptual and argumentative innovations.