Unless a society has undergone a revolution, such as the end of communism or apartheid, it is rash to rewrite its basic law from scratch
. One is the tendency of autocrats—like Vladimir Putin in Russia, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey and Mr Saied in Tunisia—to amend charters to grant themselves more power. The second is the habit of Utopians to pack constitutions with growing numbers of highly specific “social rights”. Both should be resisted.
A constitution should establish basic rights, such as freedom of speech and fair trials. It should lay the ground rules for how a state works, such as: is it a presidential system or a parliamentary one? Then it should stop. The ever-shifting details of public policy—pensions, minimum wages and so forth—should be left to the government of the day. Policies must adjust to changing circumstances; budgets must add up. That is harder if lots of big items are set in stone.
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