Why Constitutions Matter
Core ideas about what a constitution does and why modern states need one.
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Questions Covered in This Set
10 cards to master
What is a constitution?
The fundamental (higher/supreme) law of a political community — the law that makes other laws possible.
What does Article 13 of the Indian Constitution say?
Any law inconsistent with the Fundamental Rights is void to that extent — making the Constitution supreme over ordinary law.
What are the four jobs a constitution does?
It constitutes organs of state, distributes power, limits power through rights, and expresses identity and aspiration.
How does a constitution distribute power?
Horizontally among legislature, executive and judiciary; vertically between the Union and the States (Seventh Schedule Lists).
Which Articles form Part III (Fundamental Rights), and which one enforces them?
Articles 12–35; Article 32 allows direct enforcement in the Supreme Court — Ambedkar's 'very soul of the Constitution'.
Three things a constitution supplies to powerful modern states
Legitimacy, predictability, and a peaceful method of changing rulers.
What 1977 event showed constitutionalism working in India?
Indira Gandhi's government lost the post-Emergency election and handed over power peacefully — no tanks moved.
How did the framers handle India's deep diversity?
Not by suppressing difference but by giving it constitutional channels: linguistic states, religious freedom (Arts 25–28), reservations, Fifth and Sixth Schedule provisions.
How does the 1935 Government of India Act differ from the Constitution?
The 1935 Act only reorganised authority flowing from the British Crown and Parliament; the Constitution created new organs of state from the people's authority.
What kind of constitution does the United Kingdom have?
An unwritten — better, uncodified — constitution scattered across statutes, judicial decisions and conventions.
