The Role of Historical Narratives in Constitutional Design

ABSTRACT: “History matters. It matters not just because we can learn from the past, but because the present and the future are connected to the past by the continuity of a society’s institutions”. The beginning of this seemingly indisputable viewpoint highlights the significance of the past, which is always mediated through narratives about it. The end of the quote points to “social institutions,” whose shaping is partially yet undeniably influenced by constitutional design. In my research, I started from the already widely accepted theoretical link between emotions and constitutional design. Since socio-psychological research has confirmed the connection between historical narratives and emotional responses to challenges, the question arose: can historical narratives in this sense also be useful for constitution-making? The research framework was based on the experience of Yugoslavia and its successor states. As a result I found that (1) in the former Yugoslav region, historical narratives mainly served two purposes in constitutional design: the first was to legitimize a constitutional novelty, while the second was to emphasize the relevance of a particular constitutional arrangement. The historical narratives served these purposes notwithstanding the type of political regime; (2) historical narratives were more a matter of argumentation than motivation in designing constitutions; (3) historical narratives offered “emotional back-up” in designing constitutions throughout the Yugoslav region.