The world has seen many new constitutions promising social rights and adopting innovative representative institutions. This book presents examples from the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia that show these constitutions face many challenges, especially the rise of authoritarian regimes that endanger the rule of law.

Introduction
Rogers M. Smith and Richard R. Beeman
Part I. The Example of American Constitutionalism
Chapter 1. Is the Influence of the U.S. Constitution Declining?
David S. Law and Mila Versteeg
Chapter 2. Is the U.S. Constitution Sufficiently Democratic? How Would We Know and Do We Really Care?
Sanford Levinson
Chapter 3. State Constitutional Details and America's Positive Rights
Emily Zackin
Part II. Global Patterns and Problems in Modern Constitution-Making
Chapter 4. Dignity, Rights, and the Comparative Method
Christopher McCrudden
Chapter 5. Beyond Window Dressing: Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes
Tom Ginsburg
Chapter 6. Unconstitutional Constituent Power
Kim Lane Scheppele
Chapter 7. Communist Federations
Valerie Bunce
Chapter 8. Constitutional Moments and the Paradox of Constitutionalism in Multinational Democracies (Spain, 2006-2019)
Jaime Lluch
Chapter 9. Constituting the State in Postcolonial Africa: Fifty Years of Constitution-Making Toward an African Constitutionalism
Heinz Klug
Conclusion
Rogers M. Smith
List of Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments

Rogers M. Smith is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author or coauthor of eight books, most recently That Is Not Who We Are! Populism and Peoplehood. Richard R. Beeman (1942-2016) was the John Welsch Centennial Professor History, Emeritus, at the University of Pennsylvania. He was the author of eight books including Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, 1774-1776.