Foreword: Essentially Contested Constitutional Revolutions

Mark A. Graber

“Constitutional Revolution” is an essentially contested concept that “inevitably involves endless disputes about...proper uses on the part of . . . users.” The meaning of such essentially contested concepts as “constitutional revolution,” “democracy,” “liberty,” and the like depends on debatable normative propositions. Jeremy Waldron observes, “only normative concepts with a certain internal complexity are capable of being essentially contested.” One cannot determine whether the United States is a democracy without assessing state equality in the Senate and the Electoral College. Whether a constitutional revolution has taken place depends on contested theories of constitutionalism and political development.