The Architectonics of Constitutional Literacy: Systematizing Public Knowledge Within Sovereign States

Abstract

"In the realization that an informed citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic, this proclamation is made in recognition of Sovereign State's Need for a Plan to Encourage Constitution Understanding. This Article examines the epidemic of constitutional illiteracy that erodes public confidence and undermines democracy’s stability. The article is based on the prism of constitutional culture, civic education and citizen participation as applied to create a real lineament for state-sponsored institutional transformation. The analysis, for the first time, identifies the current obstacles to establishing public trust and knowledge of fundamental constitutional principles given systemic failures in state communication and disengagement with core legal structures. This paper outlines an organized plan for teaching the Constitution in schools and universities. This entails a reworking of the curriculum to go beyond formula for rote learning and thinking historically about constitutional history, principles and their application. It also calls for increased access to Constitutional education through state-funded, easy-to-understand, multi-lingual mechanisms that will make the supreme lawless elitist and more accessible to all. This institutional model ensures all the citizenry have access to basic or public knowledge. The study investigates the crucial role played by non-state actors, analysing the media and civil society in the making of the constitutional meaning on civic. It posits that such entities function as secondary public enlightenment organs, that is they make those abstruse norms of law accessible for discussion in public. The article outlines an approach to governance involving collaboration between the state and civil society designed to optimize outreach and impact, by sustaining a coherent and factual constitutional narrative.