In a talk based on his newly published monograph, Jeffrey Lenowitz will focus on constitutional ratification, the procedure in which a draft constitution is submitted to the people or their representatives in an up or down vote. Ratification is increasingly common and routinely recommended by experts. Nonetheless, it is neither neutral nor inevitable. Constitutions can be made without it and when it is used it has significant effects. This raises the central question : should ratification be recommended? Put another way: is there a reason for treating the procedure as a default for the constitution-making process?

The talk will discuss ratification and its types, explain the procedure's effects, conceptual origins, and history, and then concentrate on finding reasons for its use. Specifically, it builds up and analyzes the three most likely normative justifications.

Jeffrey A. Lenowitz is the Meyer and W. Walter Associate Professor of Politics at Brandeis University. His research focuses on democratic and constitutional theory with an emphasis on procedural design and legitimacy. He is the author of Constitutional Ratification without Reason (Oxford University Press, 2022).

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