The Decline of “Middle-Class Constitutionalism” and the Democratic Backlash
Western liberal democracies are nowadays
experiencing the decline of “middle-class constitutionalism”. A
growing economic inequality is threatening the contemporary
constitutional state and its political stability, eroding social
homogeneity considered by Hermann Heller to be a necessary feature
for a sound democracy. This process has significant democratic
backlashes and political implications. Looking in historical and
comparative perspectives at the dynamic balance between economic