Studies in Constitutional Democracy Book Series

Revolutionizing the Study of Constitutional Democracy

Since 2016, series editors Jeff Pasley and Jay Dow have collaborated with the University of Missouri Press to publish at least two monographs per year as part of the Studies in Constitutional Democracy book series, an interdisciplinary imprint that plumbs the foundations, evolution, and application of constitutional democracy in the US and around the globe.

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Series Overview

The United States presents world political history with a paradox: a constitutional democracy whose constitution barely mentions democracy. A constantly roiling political free-for-all, it has yet remained more rigidly bound to its constitutional rules, and more constitutionally stable, than any other country. The interplay of these fluid elements is both the inspiration and subject matter for this series.

While examinations of American constitutional democracy are central, we broadly construe this thematic focus to cover not only the philosophical foundations and historical origins of the nation’s democratic and constitutional traditions but also the evolution, application, and reinterpretation of these traditions in later periods and around the globe. With this in mind, topics that we can imagine future titles in the series exploring include:

The reception and refraction of constitutional and democratic ideas in American culture

Theory and practice of the Electoral College

The constitutional or democratic ideas of forgotten forces in American politics

Histories of the way particular presidential elections turned on constitutional issues or radically transformed prevailing interpretations and uses of the Constitution

The interplay or competition between constitutional democracy and other forms of politics in American history

Criticisms and re-appropriations of American constitutional democracy outside the United States