Constitutions as Totems and Illiberal Constitutionalism as Hyper-Totemism
Law, Culture and the Humanities
Published online on March 12, 2026
Abstract
Law, Culture and the Humanities, Ahead of Print.
This article examines the community-forming role of constitutions by interpreting them as totems, drawing on the work of James Frazer, Sigmund Freud, and Émile Durkheim. It identifies three dimensions of totemic trust: the constitution as a collective ...
This article examines the community-forming role of constitutions by interpreting them as totems, drawing on the work of James Frazer, Sigmund Freud, and Émile Durkheim. It identifies three dimensions of totemic trust: the constitution as a collective ...