Imaginaries of Prosperity as Constitutional Imaginaries

This chapter explores the question of what renders imaginaries constitutional. Should we expect to find constitutional imaginaries in constitutional texts and doctrine? Or should we look for them elsewhere in our societies? While constitutional documents or conventions have occupied much of our political imagination, the truly constitutional imaginaries can be only those imaginaries that have actually shaped, or constituted, the ways in which we go about making and re-making our societies. I will argue that the two main constitutional imaginaries of modernity, that is, the social imaginaries that have in fact shaped the deep structure of our societies, have presented themselves as stories of prosperity. These imaginaries of prosperity, through directing individual and collective efforts and resources toward either private or collective routes to prosperity, have shaped the way we think about not only constitutions, but also economy, politics, government, and law. This chapter first explores the relation between social imaginaries and social change, after which it turns to developing the concept of imaginaries of prosperity. Subsequently, it traces the collective imaginary of prosperity behind the Weimar constitution and contrasts it with the privatizing imaginaries of prosperity underlying the European Constitution. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the role of constitutional law and scholarship for social change.