The Worldwide Expansion of Constitutional Democracy

Abstract

Thus far, this book has described the development of constitutionalism within its original environment, i.e. the Atlantic space. In this final chapter, I take into consideration the trends of expansion of constitutionalism and constitutional structures in countries on other continents. After the Second World War, indeed, several waves of democratization spread democratic forms and procedures around the world. These trends coincided with, and were related to, other concurrent processes, such as decolonization, democratization and economic growth (Huntington 1991). Furthermore, the defeat of communism, with the acceptance of capitalism as the main economic system in the world, further raised the misleading sensation of an “end of history”, with a unique political and economic model globally widespread (Fukuyama 1992).