1 Introduction: towards a weak constitutionalism 1
Democratic constitutionalism 3
Democracy and the fundamental laws 5
Constituent power 7
Democratic legitimacy 9
Weak constitutionalism 10
Outline of the argument 12
2 The end of constitutionalism 17
The aspiration to permanence （or the fear of constituent power） 18
Constitutionalism as the protector of democracy 21
Beyond ‘democratic rights’: the extra-democratic effects of constitutions 26
Concluding remarks 29
3 The second dimension of democracy 35
The two dimensions of democracy 36
The theory and practice of substantive and procedural democracy 41
Ignoring the second dimension of democracy 43
The second dimension of democracy: approaching constituent power 47
Concluding remarks 51
4 Democracy’s principles 57
The principle of democratic openness 57
The principle of popular participation 60
Negating democratic openness 64
Negating popular participation 68
Concluding remarks 73
5 The theory （and practice） of constituent power 79
Locke and Lawson: constituent power or right of resistance? 80
Sieyes and Schmitt on constituent power and constitutional remaking 84
Constituent power in contemporary constitutionalism 88
Concluding remarks 94
6 The idea of democratic legitimacy 102
The idea of legitimacy 103
Towards a conception of democratic legitimacy 107
Democratic legitimacy and the risks of constituent power 109
The conditions of democratic legitimacy 114
Concluding remarks 118
7 The transformation of the juridical 126
Schmitt and Rawls on the limits of constitutional reform 127
The judicial doctrine of constitutional substitution 132
Constitutional reform and acts of the people 139
Concluding remarks 143
8 The beginnings of weak constitutionalism 152
Weak constitutionalism 153
Exercising constituent power or weak constitutionalism’s mechanisms 156
Of constituent assemblies convened from below 160
Constituent assemblies and unwritten constitutions 165
Concluding remarks 168
9 Activating constituent power 175
The activation/execution distinction 175
Of revolutions, informal assemblies, and other protests 178
Concluding remarks 182
10 Conclusion 186
Bibliography 189
Index 203