Sujit Choudhry Gives His Take on Populism

Sujit Choudhry is The Director of The Center for Constitutional Transitions. Choudhry has given speeches all over the World on the topics of politics and constitutional law. Sujit Choudhry's research has led to him studying several topics, including official language parties, constitutional building processes, and the constitutional design in ethnically divided societies.

Sujit Choudhry has spent over 20 years being a constitutional advisor. Some of his roles include initiating public dialogue sessions with civil society groups, training civil servants and bureaucrats, and performing detailed advisory work with different technical experts. Choudhry has published over 100 chapters, articles, and reports. Two of his most famous books are The Migration of Constitutional Ideas, and Constitutional Making. Choudhry serves on The Executive Committee of The International Society of Public Law, The Scientific Advisory Board of The International Journal of Constitutional Law, and The Editorial Advisory Board for The Cambridge Studies in Constitutional Law.

Thoughts on Populism

Recently, Sujit Choudhry shared his thoughts on populism. Choudhry says that Mattias Kumm believes that the populist challenge to constitutional democracy is systemic because it looks at all of the important features of constitutional democracy. Kumm feels that populists do not believe in the concept of opposition.

Choudhry wonders if there is a way to enhance the resilience of a constitution to help it stand strong in the face of populist opposition. Choudhry believes that constitutional democrats should have a realistic idea of the benefits of constitutional design. Choudhry would like to see a common ground between nihilism and constitutional idealism. Idealists believe that the only way to get rid of populism is through intelligent constitutional design. Nihilists believe that the constitutional design is limited in what it can do.

While constitutions cannot completely eliminate risks, they can reduce them. Choudhry believes that constitutional design can create obstacles that will lead to delays. The obstacles allow for political mobilization. Choudhry thinks that democratic politics are an important part of defending constitutional democracy.

2nd Point

Sujit Choudhry feels that constitutional democracy is often misunderstood. Many incumbents try to alter the political competition to reduce losing power in future elections. Some incumbents attempt to change the electoral system design and the laws concerning political formation. Populists appear to be different because they represent an electoral majority. Choudhry says that all political movements are coalitions that have two groups. There are elites, who despise the electoral process. There are also voters who often live lives of risk and insecurity.

There are several distinctions between autocrats and populists. Choudhry believes that people must extend an open hand to people who have turned to populism. Constitutional resilience can overreach and consume every part of the economic and political order if there is no balance.

3rd Point

Choudhry believes that there should be recognizable difference between the two types of constitutional resilience. Many people have a negative opinion of politics. Those people view the threats of constitutional democracy as a warning sign sent from populist political mobilization. However, Choudhry points out that populist majorities often threaten core human rights. Political parties are an important part of the constitutional order. There is fear that rejecting politics may hurt the constitutional order in regard to the populist challenge.

4th Point

Sujit Choudhry would like to see changes to the viewfinder of constitutional law. He would like to see some of the internal rules amended by the legislature. While constitutional designers have brought attention to voting rules, they should put more support into tools such as agenda setting and bottlenecks.