Book Review: Costitutional Democracy

Constitutional Democracy: Creating and Maintaining a Just Political Order (The Johns Hopkins Series in Constitutional Thought)
Author: Walter F Murphy
Murphy has made a scholarly subject interesting even for those who do not have a background in theory of governments and practical politics. The form and nature of our governments are of utmost important to our individual life- plans and a happy life. Murphy reaches the conclusion, via a debate, that Constitutional Democracy is the best form of government to fulfill aspirations of citizens. Rejecting all forms of dictatorship and totalitarianism at the outset Murphy's debaters consider constitutional democracy, representative democracy, coercive capitalism, consociational democracy and perfectionism. The debaters put forward their point of view in favor of the system they think is the best. Here, Murphy has drawn from experience of nations and political philosophy from ancient times till to today to present pros and cons of each system. He ultimately chooses Constitutional Democracy rejecting others. His book can serve as a guide in creation of institutions required for functioning of a constitutional democracy. His detailed treatment of maintaining and changing a constitutional order brings to our attention the great complexities of our political system which we take for granted and are instead inundated with an overdose of everyday squabbles of vested interests, what we call petty politics. That such a scholarly work has typos and factual errors is regrettable. There are one or two incomplete sentences, wrong words in sentences making them incomprehensible and factual errors. With my knowledge limited to details of India, I have noticed that facts about examples from India are mistaken about religious identities of the parties involved. While praising the maturity of Indian voters in ousting Indira Gandhi from power because she tried to subvert democratic institutions, he does not mention that the same people voted her back to power within two and a half years. That such short a public memory is a lesson to be learned for people considering design of a political system seems to have missed his attention. However, this does not much reduce the importance of his work which should be read by anybody interested in understanding the complex world of governance