Democracy, the liberal representative democracy, by definition operates contingently, through the cycles of periodic elections, but is ultimately judged historically, by results and retrospectively.

Democracy moves at the pace of short historical time, but the outcomes of democratic choices often become evident in the depths of long historical time.

The parallel rise of radical nationalist populism and the far-right, the expansion of Euroscepticism, the inclination towards illiberal democracy, and the British decision for Brexit are individual phenomena that move –in different ways and rhythms from country to country– along a common denominator that is the functioning, pathologies, and resilience of Democracy.

However, the modern era, which has brought forth the complete form of liberal democracy, has also highlighted the institution that seeks to reconcile the relationship between Democracy with contingency and History simultaneously. This institution is the Constitution.

When the process of establishing or revising the Constitution is in motion, then the constitutional or revisionary contingency gains the heavy and dangerous privilege of claiming historical characteristics. At that point, the risk arises that hasty, momentary, random, unrefined, populist choices –or even merely voluntaristic ones– may acquire the maximum legal force of constitutional provision and present themselves as “historical.” However, there is no worse form of populism than constitutional populism.

This book aims to function exactly as a counterbalance to constitutional populism.