Kingdoms, republics and people's democracies: legitimacy and national identity in European constitutions

Abstract

This article uses constitutional texts to explore the models of national identity which elites in European states have apparently wished to endorse. It analyses three types of constitutions – of constitutional monarchies, democratic republics, and former revolutionary communist states – to establish how the primary principle of legitimacy is identified, and how the concept of ‘the people’ is understood. It concludes that these issues evoke a different response in the three types of constitution, suggesting a surprising survival of the implications of the monarchical-republican distinction, and a brief flowering of at least the principle of international proletarian solidarity in communist constitutions.

Keywords:

• national identity
• constitutions
• republicanism
• monarchy
• nationalism

Acknowledgements

Revised version of a paper presented at the workshop on ‘National identity and constitutionalism in Europe’ at the annual joint sessions of the European Consortium for Political Research, University of Rennes, 11–16 April 2008. The author is indebted to workshop participants and to anonymous referees for comments on an earlier draft.

Notes

1. For example, the 2005 edition of Constitutions of the Countries of the World for the UK reproduces 14 documents in whole or in part (Blaustein & Flanz, 1971– ); but Wolf-Phillips (1968, pp. 184–201) lists several hundred acts that have constitutional status.

2. As a quantitative indicator of the relative significance of the two principles, Peaslee (1956), vol. 1, pp. 5–7) concluded that of the constitutions in his collection at that point, 66 rested on the principle of popular sovereignty and 21 on the monarchical principle (although 11 of the latter also endorsed the legitimising role of the people); for further discussion see Wheare, 1966, pp. 52–66.

3. The principal collections used in this paper are Dodd, 1909 (Austria, fundamental laws of 1867; Belgium, 1831; Denmark, 1849; Germany, 1871; Sardinia/Italy, 1848; the Netherlands, 1815–1887; Norway, 1814; Portugal, 1826; Russia, 1906; Spain, 1876; Sweden, 1809; Switzerland, 1874); Rao, 1934 (Austria, 1920; Czechoslovakia, 1920; Denmark, 1915; Estonia, 1920; Germany, 1919; Irish Free State, 1922; Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, 1921; Poland, 1921; Soviet Union, 1918); Peaslee, 1968 (Finland, 1919; Germany, 1949; Greece, 1952; Iceland, 1944; Ireland, 1937; Italy, 1947; Luxembourg, 1868; Portugal, 1933; Spain, 1966); Triska, 1968 for the constitutions of the Communist-governed states (Albania, 1946; Bulgaria, 1947; Czechoslovakia, 1948, 1960; German Democratic Republic, 1950; Hungary, 1949; Poland, 1952; Romania, 1948, 1952, 1965; USSR, 1924, 1936; Yugoslavia, 1946, 1963); and Simons, 1980, for later versions of these (Albania, 1976; Bulgaria, 1971; Czechoslovakia, constitutional law of 1968; German Democratic Republic, 1968; USSR, 1977; Yugoslavia, 1974). A collection of British constitutional documents is reproduced in Peaslee, 1968, and the 15 French constitutions enacted over the period since 1791 are collected in Godechot, 1970. The new constitutions of the post-authoritarian Mediterranean democracies are available on the web site of the International Constitutional Law (ICL) project, www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/ (Greece, 1975; Portugal, 1976; Spain, 1978). The constitutions of the new democracies of central and Eastern Europe are also available on the ICL site. An important, regularly updated collection will be found in the loose-leaf Constitutions of the Countries of the World (Blaustein & Flanz, 1971–). Official English translations of most of these constitutions are also available on government web sites (for links, see the University of Richmond's Constitution finder, http://confinder.richmond.edu). In the text, constitutions are referred to by year of promulgation (as listed above) and relevant article.

4. In 1975 Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was dismissed by the Queen's representative, the Governor-General, even though he retained majority support in the House of Representatives, in apparent breach of constitutional convention. In 1990 King Baudouin indicated that he was unwilling to give royal assent to legislation liberalising the availability of abortion, but the Belgian government was able to sidestep a confrontation and resolve the issue along lines permitted by the constitution by (1) declaring the King unable to reign, (2) itself assenting to the bill in a regency capacity, and (3) declaring the King again able to reign.

5. The King of Poland was a nobleman elected (1573–1795) by an assembly of the Polish nobility; the Holy Roman Emperor was chosen (1356–1806) by seven electors (three archbishops and four secular rules); the King of Malaysia has been elected since independence in 1957 by the hereditary rulers (mainly sultans) of the nine provinces of peninsular Malaysia for a five-year term; and the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is selected by the seven hereditary Emirs from among their number. These formal provisions have been modified by political and other factors; for example, the Habsburgs dominated the position of Holy Roman Emperor from the fifteenth century onwards, and the Emir of Abu Dhabi has been President of the UAE since its formation in 1971.

6. Otto Habsburg was able to visit Austria only in 1966, having earlier renounced his claim to the throne, and his mother, the former Empress Zita, was unable to enter the country until 1982. No British monarch set foot in independent Ireland after 1922 until a visit by Queen Elizabeth II in May 2011.

7. The East German flag was later differentiated from the West German one by the superimposition on it of the state coat of arms.