Populism and Constitution Making Process

Constituent power as a form of an unlimited power of the people fits into the populist discourse about the primacy of the people over procedures. The populist perception of constituent power emphasizes the immense presence of people on which its limitless character relies. Since constituent power stems from the people, it can take any form, as long as it is the outcome of popular will and can make decisions on any matter and not solely on the substance of the Constitution. The crucial issue then is whether or not there any criteria which could help us to draw some demarcation lines. Instead of the peculiarities of each case, there are some indicators which could make possible the differentiation between populist and non-populist attempts of constitution making, even if they sometimes look similar. The examination of each case though the lenses of these indicators might not provide us with a clear answer on whether a case is a definite case of populist constitution making. However, if we rely on the impact that such indicators have had on the constitution-making process in total, we can come to safe conclusions.