Book Review: Maxwell A Cameron, Strong Constitutions: Social-Cognitive Origins of the Separation of Powers
| Author | Anthony O’Halloran |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929916676921 |
| Published date | 01 February 2017 |
| Date | 01 February 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsPolitical Theory |
Book Reviews 85
The collection includes a variety of intrigu-
ing developments of, and comments on, histori-
cal research in Public Choice. The final chapter
is the only entry that was previously unpub-
lished and it nicely draws out the underlying
theme running through the other chapters: the
characterisation of the tax base as a commons
and democratic fiscal policy as a tragedy
thereof. There is an asymmetry between the
two sides of the fiscal account such that spend-
ing, and thus the accumulation of public debt, is
always the dominant strategy, so the thesis
goes. Chapters 5–8 explicitly investigate the
analogy between the tragedy of the commons
and majoritarian fiscal decision-making.
Indeed, the collection as a whole can be read as
an investigation into this thesis, as well as its
multidimensional economic implications. The
conclusions derived are not however limited to
mere inefficiencies, but moral and distribu-
tional implications are also considered, includ-
ing those of liberty (chapter 10), fairness
(chapter 1) and equality (chapter 11).
Chapters 7, 12 and 13 show that higher tax
burdens than would be preferred by any majority
coalition at any time are the result of majoritar-
ian decision-making. Log-rolling (vote-trading)
has the result that ‘rotating majority coalitions
exploit the general tax base’ more than they
would prefer to in a non-strategic setting
(p. 138). Indeed, democratic institutions mean
that strategic voting, rather than voting in direct
accordance with one’s ordinal preferences,
becomes rational (chapter 9).
Chapter 2 reframes tragedies of the com-
mons as a rationality failure. From the per-
spective of constitutional choice, rather than
rational choice within the constraints set by
rules at the constitutional level, over-exploit-
ers of the commons are irrational for not
introducing rules for exclusion. This is a
refreshing take, given that commons’ trage-
dies are usually framed as regrettable but
rational outcomes.
Billy Christmas
(University of Manchester)
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929916676920
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Strong Constitutions: Social-Cognitive
Origins of the Separation of Powers
by Maxwell A Cameron. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2013. 255pp., £40.00 (h/b), ISBN
9780199987443
The separation of power is typically understood
as a liberal constitutional device which aims to
prevent the abuse of state power and which acts
as a counter-majoritarian restraint on the demos.
Similar to bills of rights and the rule of law, it has
become synonymous empirically and norma-
tively with liberal democratic constitutionalism.
In Strong Constitutions: Social-Cognitive
Origins of the Separation of Powers, Maxwell
Cameron invites his readers to think about the
separation of powers in atypical terms. The
book approaches this task in at least three ways.
First, the separation of powers should be under-
stood as a device designed to enable, as much
as constrain, the exercise of state power. It
empowers states to achieve desirable collective
outcomes rather than just frustrate them.
Counterintuitively, the book argues that
‘Constitutional states are not weaker because
their powers are divided: they are stronger’
(p. 1). For those readers, therefore, who
approach this book through a Madisonian lens,
a significant change of mindset will be required.
Second, the separation of powers is under-
stood in textual terms. As texts of the post-
Gutenberg era, modern constitutions enable
states to achieve a wide range of collective
goals across space (sometimes vast) and
time (long range and short range).
Third, the separation of powers is consid-
ered ‘an emergent property of lettered political
institutions as they evolve and adapt to chang-
ing social-cognitive conditions’ (p. 3). This
social-cognitive perspective, which focuses on
the role of human communication potentially
leading to mutual understanding/cooperation
or misunderstanding/non-cooperation in the
political realm, is the book’s theoretical
bedrock.
Regarding our understanding of the separa-
tion of powers, modern deliberative demo-
cratic theory is deemed the most important
scholarly advance since Montesquieu.
Deliberative democrats, in sharp contradis-
tinction to liberals and electoral democrats,
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