Building a democracy encompasses a far broader range of issues than drafting and adopting a new constitution, yet constitution-making has become a key element in the political transitions that have followed the end of the cold war. At the same time these political transitions have involved a range of processes particular to each context and beyond the simple negotiation and drafting of a new constitutional text. While there is often a reliance on models adopted from prior processes, this essay argues that it is important to contextualize these experiences in order to learn the broader lessons that might enable participants in a political transition to engage in a constitution-making process as a means to civilize their unreconcilable conflicts. This might be achieved by employing legally-constituted institutional arrangements and common principles that provide degrees of certainty and ambiguity that allows for a political engagement that might provide the mutual respect and confidence essential to the building of a democratic order.
