Democratic constitutions and education to freedom

Abstract

This essay shall analyze the idea of the possibility of education to freedom through democratic institutions and the role of the constitution in this process. The question shall not be considered from an empirical perspective, but from a theoretical perspective. In the first part democratic institutions will be defined in such a way, that it is possible to speak of democratic habit as a necessary component of democracy. The second part shall introduce a concept of State constitution that takes seriously the hope that such a constitution could be the major tool for the education to freedom of citizens. Finally, this paper shall try to make sense of the very idea of democratic participation as education to freedom: firstly by identifying the conditions in which the latter is possible, and secondly by offering a certain definition of freedom. In this context, freedom shall be defined as political autonomy and deliberative power, taking distance both from the traditional liberal definition of freedom and from the traditional republican one, while accepting partially what is something referred to as the (radical) democratic definition of freedom. However, the impact of the latter will be limited by referring to what we may call the constitutionalist tradition.