On some of the pre-conditions of democracy under the rule of law

Judging constitutional systems that are in crisis can, after a certain point, only be done on the basis of standards that are external to the relevant system. Those standards may partake of gen-eral constitutional principles underlying the relevant system, but are generally praeter-legal, and of a political or moral nature. This brief essay focusses on the undermining of democracy, and identifies the principle of openness as a major precondition of democracy under the rule of law. The crisis of democracy in many European and other Western states is not merely a constitutional, but more profoundly a political, moral and spiritual crisis.