Modern Constitutionalism and the Challenges of Complex Pluralism

The chapter will engage with recent pluralistic trends that put modern constitutionalism under strain. After a brief discussion of the post-Second World War, reinforcing trend of modern constitutionalism in the form of legal, 'new constitutionalism', I will argue that the significance of this trend needs to be qualified by a range of pluralistic tendencies that, while in some ways amplifying legalistic and monistic tendencies in constitutionalism, also involve strong corrosive and diversifying implications for the modern constitutional template. These pluralistic tendencies comprise the fragmentation of sovereignty, cultural pluralism, and substantive or interpretative pluralism. The argument is 2 that the challenges of complex pluralism undermine many of the constraining features of modern constitutionalism, but, while in some cases forms of autonomy and democratic participation are strengthened, in many others, constitutional pluralism tends to further compromise the democratic dimension of constitutionalism. In a normative sense, the chapter critically discusses a number of theoretical reflections on these challenges, and in particular emphasises those approaches that search for the potential reinforcement of participatory, open-ended, and inclusive dimensions in the current constitutional predicament.