Conservation, progress, and change : how time affects politics and democracy

The article develops a discussion on how time influences the realm of politics and the structure of democratic constitutionalism. In the first section, a theoretical and political-philosophical of time will be provided; in the second, the attention will be focused on the consequences of time on constitutionalism and democracy. Here, a distinction between the two concepts of time of politics and time of constitutionalism will be addressed. The theory of time in political-philosophical terms can be defined in multiple directions: firstly, in terms of political and constitutional changes, two different matters will be distinguished: a “conservative” as opposed to a “progressive” approach to politics and constitutionalism. Hence, a twofold definition of constitutionalism can be traced: on the one hand, the idea that a constitution can be considered as the product of the daily political debate and, on the other hand, the idea of a constitution as a generational product.