American Constitutionalism Heard Round the World, 1776-1989: A Global Perspective

11. Seventh Echo: American Constitutionalism and Democratization, 1974–1989

320 11 Seventh Echo American Constitutionalism and Democratization, 1974–1989 The seventh and last “echo” was distinguished by four major developments. The first was the remarkable surge of democracy that started sweeping the globe. Thirty countries changed from nondemocratic to democratic regimes from 1974 to 1989, doubling the number of democracies to almost sixty.1 The second was the important role of American constitutionalism in that surge. Although American influence was usually more indirect than direct, the United States as a model was of the utmost significance. The third development was that the increase in the number of democracies tipped the balance so that the forces of democracy exceeded those of autocracy around the globe for the first time in world history.2 Finally, the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989 signaled the end of the cold war, leaving the United States as the world’s sole superpower. The start of the seventh echo of American constitutionalism coincided with the beginning of Huntington’s “third wave” of democratization, which he called “perhaps the most important . . . global political development in the late twentieth century.”3 Two other scholars agreed, “When historians look back at the twentieth century, they may well judge its last quarter as the greatest period of democratic ferment in the history of modern civilization .”4 Although the third wave continued long after 1989, this chapter concludes on that date when both the seventh echo and this book end. Because the beginning of the seventh echo and the start of the third wave coincide, the geographic pattern of the third wave provides a useful way to organize the spread of American constitutional influence during the period. Calling attention to the coincidence does not mean to suggest that the two terms constitutionalism and democracy are synonymous, for they are not, as previously noted.5 Rather, it simply demonstrates that American Constitutionalism and Democratization 321 American constitutionalism and democracy overlapped and expanded side by side during this era. By this time, the American model had spread worldwide, and many of its features had become international norms. America’s Declaration of Independence , as David Armitage points out, had become the generic form for more than one hundred similar “declarations” of all sorts written since 1776. They were issued at all levels of government, national, regional, and even small localities. The declarations appeared in four distinct “moments ” in history, with the fourth resulting largely from the breakup of the Soviet empire. “Between 1990 and 1993, more than thirty states became independent or regained independence.” Averaging ten declarations a year, they constituted the most prolific period to that date.6 Other features of the American model—the four “inventions” of the first American state constitutions—had become international norms as well. By 1989 the idea of a constitution as a written document was nearly universal, and constitutional conventions were used quite often. Provisions for ratifying constitutions and procedures for amending them frequently followed the American pattern, though often with variations. Foreign constitutionalists continued to be influenced heavily also by the three main institutions of the U.S. Constitution: presidentialism, federalism , and judicial review. American-style presidentialism continued to be adopted less often than the other two features. But it was followed in Korea, the Philippines, the former Soviet Union, and a few of the twentyfive new democracies in eastern and central Europe. Without a separation of powers and robust judicial review, however, it was believed that presidentialism would degenerate into dictatorship. More constitutions consequently adopted a hybrid semipresidential and semiparliamentary system, and in this way, American constitutionalism had indirect influence. American-style federalism had been very influential during the nineteenth century and had been the major inspiration for federations in Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina. But by the time of the seventh echo, it had given way to a variety of “federal arrangements,” many of which reflected David Elazar’s principle of “self-rule plus shared rule.”7 After the end of World War II, variations of American federalism had either directly or indirectly become standard in countries like Austria, Burma, Yugoslavia, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Tanzania , and the Arab Emirates.8 Judicial review, however, was the fastest-growing American institution abroad. The constitutionality of legislative or executive acts usually 322 American Constitutionalism and Democratization was reviewed by one of two court systems, as noted earlier. The American model incorporated judicial review into the ordinary judicial hierarchy , culminating in a...