Reimagining Global Order: Citizen-Centered Constitutionalism

Could postnational constitutionalism be re-examined through the lens of a citizen-centred perspective that sees ordinary citizens as the constituent power of a democratised global order? This is a bold proposition currently being advanced by a number of pioneering scholars in the field of deliberative studies. Recently, there has been growing interest in the literature and among civil society organisations in upscaling mini-publics to regional and global levels. Unsatisfied with the idea that only states or parliaments should be involved in theorising a constitutionalised global order, some scholars argue that global citizens' assemblies should be used to make global politics fairer, more inclusive and more representative of the needs and concerns of ordinary citizens around the world. But should we go so far as to claim that a postnational popular constituent power is possible and desirable at the regional (e.g. European) or global level? Should a permanent global citizens' assembly be institutionalised, for what purposes and with what constitutional powers? These are some of the empirically grounded normative questions that this paper seeks to address.