Hayek treated the US Constitution as a model for binding democratic majorities

Evidence

In The Constitution of Liberty, Hayek identified constitutionalism (‘the principle of legal limitation of power by higher principles to Parliament itself’) as the key US contribution to politics. This principle of constitutionally limited government, he argued, used ‘inviolable individual rights’ to bind temporary majorities. While the United States was founded on a British tradition of liberty, he remarked elsewhere, South America was rooted in the French Revolution and ‘overly influenced by the totalitarian type of ideologies’ of popular sovereignty. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 361

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s human-rights discourse work: constitutionalism as a device to constrain majority will is a recurring theme in rights-versus-democracy debates. — connects to: Hayek proposed constitutions to anchor economic freedoms against legislatures — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 671; Montesquieu’s separation of powers shaped the American Constitution; The American republic’s constitution was read as universal, not national, truth — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 721

Broader Connections

• Montesquieu’s separation of powers shaped the American Constitution #corroborates (0.75)
• The American republic’s constitution was read as universal, not national, truth #corroborates (0.70) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 721