Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

5-2024

Abstract

Assessing constitutional functionality often brings forward questions that go to the heart of the constitutional project, and this is certainly the case with constitutional literacy. After all, constitutions serve as national symbols and in a related vein, some have even likened them to a country’s autobiography. As Mounk points out, constitutional values and civic cultures have at times defined democracies, and many states have used their founding documents as key symbols to produce a shared identity or civic patriotism. At the same time, constitutions will also set out the legal and political structures of, and constraints on, institutions, and as such, are akin to operating manuals. Many would expect these documents to seamlessly traverse the boundaries between the symbolic and the operational, as if the barrier between these two potentially diverging functions is pliable and easily negotiated. Exploring the themes of constitutional idolatry and constitutional literacy demonstrates that this fluid nature of various forms of constitutional functionality may not actually be so seamless. Indeed, addressing these themes raises difficult questions about how we think about constitutions, what we should expect of them, and also gives rise to implications for how citizens use and interact with these texts. Those themes of literacy and idolatry are the frame of this special issue and their interplay is explored in the various contributions that make up the collection, including in this rejoinder.

Keywords

constitutional literacy, constitutional idolatry, constitutions, comparative constitutional law, civic education, legal symbols

Discipline

Constitutional Law

Research Areas

Public Interest Law, Community and Social Justice

Publication

Constitutional Studies

Volume

10

Issue

1

First Page

143

Last Page

158

ISSN

2474-9419

Publisher

University of Wisconsin–Madison

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://constitutionalstudies.wisc.edu/index.php/cs/article/view/113/86

Download

Share

COinS