Making We the People by Chaihark Hahm, Sung Ho Kim - 9781107018822

Making We the PeopleDemocratic Constitutional Founding in Postwar Japan and South Korea\nAuthor(s): Chaihark Hahm, Sung Ho Kim\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9781107018822, 978-1107018822\nSynopsis\nWhat does it mean to say that it is 'We the People' who 'ordain and establish' a constitution? Who are those sovereign people, and how can they do so? Interweaving history and theory, constitutional scholar Chaihark Hahm and political theorist Sung Ho Kim attempt to answer these perennial questions by revisiting the constitutional politics of postwar Japan and Korea. Together, these experiences demonstrate the infeasibility of the conventional assumption that there is a clearly bounded sovereign 'people' prior to constitution-making that stands apart from both outside influence and troubled historical legacies. The authors argue that 'We the People' only emerges through a deeply transformative politic.