Agniveer Army Contemporary World Politics — practice questions

Answer: D. A CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT, BY DEFINITION, IS A LIMITED GOVERNMENT. CONSTITUTIONALISM is the political doctrine that GOVERNMENTAL POWER MUST BE EXERCISED WITHIN LIMITS PRESCRIBED BY A CONSTITUTION. The fundamental idea is that even majoritarian, democratically elected governments must be bound by rules to protect individual liberty and prevent tyranny. A 'CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT' is therefore by definition a LIMITED GOVERNMENT — one whose powers are circumscribed by: - A WRITTEN OR UNWRITTEN CONSTITUTION that defines the scope of government action. - FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS that act as restraints on legislative and executive power. - SEPARATION OF POWERS that prevents concentration. - JUDICIAL REVIEW that strikes down unconstitutional actions. - RULE OF LAW — every government act needs legal authority. - AMENDMENT PROCEDURES that are formal and entrench certain provisions (in India, the BASIC STRUCTURE DOCTRINE makes core features unamendable). A government may be DEMOCRATIC and MAJORITARIAN but not CONSTITUTIONAL — e.g., a regime that wins elections but routinely violates fundamental rights, dismisses courts, suppresses dissent. Such a government is 'illiberal democracy', not constitutional government. Conversely, even a non-democratic government can in principle be limited by a constitution (constitutional monarchy with limited powers). So the DEFINING FEATURE of constitutional government is LIMITS ON POWER — option D. Why other options are WRONG: (A) 'Government by legislature' — describes parliamentary supremacy, not constitutionalism. Indeed unlimited parliamentary supremacy is the OPPOSITE of constitutionalism. (B) 'Popular government' — a populist or majoritarian government may not be constitutional if it ignores limits. (C) 'Multi-party government' — describes coalition or pluralist politics, not constitutionalism. A multi-party government can still be unconstitutional. Source: syllabus Political Theory / Carl Friedrich, 'Constitutional Government and Democracy' / Indian Constitution at Work.

UPSC CSE Prelims 2015 (GS-I, Set A), Q.91. Official answer key: D.