Democracy's Privileged Few: Legislative Privilege and Democratic Norms in the British and American Constitutions Review

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(More customer reviews)Democracy's Privileged Few is a careful, well-documented, and important study of an underappreciated topic in constitutional law. The legislative privileges protected by our Constitution are rarely discussed in courts, but they represent some of the most fundamental requirements of democratic self-government. Spanning from modern bribery scandals to freedom of speech, the power of Congress to imprison ordinary citizens, and medieval conflicts between the King and Parliament, Democracy's Privileged Few is an excellently written account of how legislative privilege emerged in the British Constitution and survived (or evolved) in the U.S. Constitution. Anyone with an interest in the foundations of American government would do well to read this book.

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This book is the first to compare the freedoms and protections of members of the United States Congress with those of Britain's Parliament. Placing legislative privilege in historical context, Josh Chafetz explores how and why legislators in Britain and America have been granted special privileges in five areas: jurisdictional conflicts between the courts and the legislative houses, freedom of speech, freedom from civil arrest, contested elections, and the disciplinary powers of the houses.Legislative privilege is a crucial component of the relationship between a representative body and the other participants in government, including the people. In recounting and analyzing the remarkable story of how parliamentary government emerged and evolved in Britain and how it crossed the Atlantic, Chafetz illuminates a variety of important constitutional issues, including the separation of powers, the nature of representation, and the difference between written and unwritten constitutionalism. This book will inspire in readers a much greater appreciation for the rise and triumph of democracy.