2 - “The Rights of Englishmen” and the English Constitution

Summary

Although commonly considered to be the birthplace of constitutional liberty and democratic rights, England did not have a distinct founding moment in which the people consented to the creation of a state. Such moments, I have argued, presume a people (as those who can and must consent to the creation of a state), a transcendent social purpose (that animates the state at and after the founding), and a leader (as the person and/or party that both articulates that social purpose and calls the people forth into mutual consultation). Perhaps paradoxically, these elements are often more apparent in the founding of otherwise non-democratic states than they are in democratic states. And nowhere are they more ambiguous than in the founding of what became English democracy.¹ In fact, the emergence of the English people, recognition of their immanent social purpose, and the creation of the English Constitution have been more or less intentionally shrouded in the mists of history.²