Sovereignty Across Living Generations

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21814/eps.8.2.7080

Keywords:

constitutionalism, transgenerational legitimacy, all-affected principle, generational sovereignty

Abstract

Ferrara (2023) defends a sequential view on how to approach a constitution across generations in terms of democratic legitimacy. Using his distinction between a sequential and a serial view, I defend the latter. I articulate two logics in support of the serial view and connect one of them to the all-affected principle. I diagnose the nature of the disagreement between the two views in the case of regime volatility. And I show that the serial view can plausibly address regime volatility issues on grounds other than concerns for democratic legitimacy.

References

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Published

31-12-2025

How to Cite

Gosseries, A. (2025). Sovereignty Across Living Generations. Ethics, Politics & Society, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.21814/eps.8.2.7080

Issue

Section

Symposium on Alessandro Ferrara, Sovereignty Across Generations