Constitution and Government

Running Head: CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT
CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT
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1CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT
Constitution and government are the two major factors of a democratic edifice. The role
of a constitution is to control the legal framework of a country. On the other hand, the
government is entitled to manage the administrative framework with the help of the legislative
considerations. According to Klug (2015), it is essential for a better government is to respect and
abide by the laws in a democratic nation, or it would violate the basic foundation of democracy.
Based on the principles of Jean Jacques Rousseau, a decentralised power structure is important
for the republicanism in order to check the balance between administration and legislation
(Gibson, Hoffman, and Jablonski 2015). Therefore, this essay is trying to depict a power
equation between the government and the constitution as the representative of each body.
Moreover, the essay also points out the definition of the constitution at first with the purpose to
understand the motive and jurisdiction of the constitution.
According to Barendt (2017) constitution is a written form of codes or principles that
incorporate the rules for the political and social organisation. On the contrary, Szikra (2014)
argued that it was not important for the constitution to be in written format. In the case of the UK
constitution, there is no written form of regulation that connotes the constitution. Therefore,
Fishkin and Forbath (2014) define constitution as the basic principles and laws of a nation, state
or social group that determines the role and power of each individual actor of the nation in terms
of citizen, administration, legislation and judiciary. As a matter of fact, it is important for all
those actors to abide by the constitutional framework for safeguarding the strong edifice of
democracy. Due to the advent of globalisation and the rapid development in the technology the
world has become a global village. As a result of that, the paradigm of a nation which sets on the
basis of geographical boundary and geopolitical sovereignty is fading away gradually. It is also
resembled with the dynamic exposure of the constitution as well where the basic characteristics

2CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT
of a constitution have been transformed into a multi-faced notion. According to Way (2015) in
the present case scenario, the power and jurisdiction of the constitution are moving towards an
international prospect where it is important for the constitution to act domestically as well as
internationally.
As per the general features of the constitution in a democratic state, Devins (2016) stated
that there are particularly three stages lingering the basic functions of the constitution. Firstly, it
can be stated that drafting and establishing a new constitution layout is the primary task of a
constitution. This draft incorporates the rule of law, separation of powers and administrative
justice. The rule of law is identified as the mainstay of a democracy where the citizens get the
right to ventilate their grievances and expect to get justice in time. Moreover, the focus of the
rule of law is also associated with the practice of including the mass into the statecraft as
democracy is for the people, of the people and by the people (Huq 2014). On the other hand,
separation of power points out towards a balance between administration and justice. The
empirical studies have argued that it is essential for democracy to hold a separate power structure
so that the ruler or the government cannot control justice. Otherwise, it will be similar to
autocracy where justice will depend on the ruler.
Besides this, it is also important for the constitution to set some principles in order to set
up a civil society. It means any possibility of a monopolistic regime or unitary power control will
be ousted by the constitutional framework. As per the research of Croissant (2016), it can be
argued that there is an ethical concept resembled with the practice of constitutional procedure. It
is more of an ethical guidebook for the ruler or the government to administrate the country.
Therefore, the government and the people have to abide by the laws and regulation. It also has a
connection of protecting the democratic establishment by the power checks and balance where