Editing Constitution (section)

===Democratic constitutions: 18th century===
[[File:Konstytucja 3 Maja.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|''[[Constitution of May 3, 1791 (painting)|Constitution of 3 May 1791]]'' (painting by [[Jan Matejko]], 1891). [[Polish people|Polish]] [[Stanisław August Poniatowski|King Stanisław August]] (left, in regal [[Stoat|ermine]]-trimmed cloak), enters [[St. John's Cathedral, Warsaw|St. John's Cathedral]], where [[Sejm]] [[Chamber of Deputies|deputies]] will swear to uphold [[Constitution of May 3, 1791|the new Constitution]]; in the background, [[Warsaw's Royal Castle]], where the Constitution has just been adopted.]]
What is sometimes called the "enlightened constitution" model was developed by philosophers of the [[Age of Enlightenment]] such as [[Thomas Hobbes]], [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], and [[John Locke]]. The model proposed that constitutional governments should be stable, adaptable, accountable, open and should represent the people (i.e., support [[democracy]]).<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/134169/constitution constitution (politics and law)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150417032859/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/134169/constitution |date=April 17, 2015 }}. ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved July 12, 2013.</ref>

''[[Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk|Agreements and Constitutions of Laws and Freedoms of the Zaporizian Host]]'' was written in 1710 by [[Pylyp Orlyk]], ''[[hetman]]'' of the [[Zaporozhian Host]]. It was written to establish a free [[Cossack Hetmanate|Zaporozhian-Ukrainian Republic]], with the support of [[Charles XII of Sweden]]. It is notable in that it established a democratic standard for the separation of powers in government between the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches, well before the publication of Montesquieu's ''[[Spirit of the Laws]]''. This Constitution also limited the executive authority of the ''hetman'', and established a democratically elected Cossack parliament called the General Council. However, Orlyk's project for an independent [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] State never materialized, and his constitution, written in exile, never went into effect.

[[Corsican Constitution]]s of 1755 and 1794 were inspired by [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]. The latter introduced [[universal suffrage]] for property owners.

The [[Instrument of Government (1772)|Swedish constitution of 1772]] was enacted under King [[Gustavus III]] and was inspired by the [[separation of powers]] by [[Montesquieu]]. The king also cherished other [[Age of Enlightenment|enlightenment]] ideas (as an [[Enlightened absolutism|enlighted despot]]) and repealed torture, liberated agricultural trade, diminished the use of the [[death penalty]] and instituted a form of [[religious freedom]]. The constitution was commended by [[Voltaire]].<ref name=Borg>{{cite book |last1=Borg |first1=Ivan |last2=Nordell |first2=Erik |last3=Rodhe |first3=Sten |last4=Nordell |first4=Erik |title=Historia för gymnasiet. Årskurs 1 |edition=4th |year=1967 |publisher=AV Carlsons |location=Stockholm |language=sv |id={{LIBRIS|10259755}} |page=410}}</ref><ref name=B>{{cite book |editor-last=Bäcklin |editor-first=Martin |title=Historia för gymnasiet: allmän och nordisk historia efter år 1000 |edition=3rd |year=1965 |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell |location=Stockholm |language=sv |id={{LIBRIS|1610850}} |pages=283–284}}</ref><ref name=Borg412>{{cite book |last1=Borg |first1=Ivan |last2=Nordell |first2=Erik |last3=Rodhe |first3=Sten |last4=Nordell |first4=Erik |title=Historia för gymnasiet. Årskurs 1 |edition=4th |year=1967 |publisher=AV Carlsons |location=Stockholm |language=sv |id={{LIBRIS|10259755}} |pages=412–413}}</ref>

The [[United States Constitution]], ratified 21 June 1788, was influenced by the writings of [[Polybius]], [[John Locke|Locke]], [[Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]], and others. The document became a benchmark for [[republicanism]] and codified constitutions written thereafter.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|title=Goodlatte says U.S. has the oldest working national constitution|url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/sep/22/bob-goodlatte/goodlatte-says-us-has-oldest-working-national-cons/|website=PolitiFact}}</ref>

The [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] [[Constitution of May 3, 1791|Constitution]] was passed on 3 May 1791.<ref>{{cite book|title=Constitutions of the World|first=Albert|last=Blaustein|author-link=Albert Blaustein|publisher=Fred B. Rothman & Company|date=January 1993|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2xCMVAFyGi8C&q=May+second+constitution+1791&pg=PA15|isbn=978-0-8377-0362-6}}</ref><ref>Isaac Kramnick, ''Introduction'', {{cite book|title=The Federalist Papers|first=James|last=Madison|url=https://archive.org/details/federalistpapers00madi|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/federalistpapers00madi/page/13 13]|quote=May second oldest constitution.|publisher=Penguin Classics|year=1987|isbn=978-0-14-044495-7|author-link=James Madison}}</ref><ref name="Markoff">"The first European country to follow the U.S. example was Poland in 1791." [[John Markoff (professor)|John Markoff]], ''[[iarchive:wavesofdemocracy0000mark/page/121/mode/2up|Waves of Democracy]]'', 1996, {{ISBN|0-8039-9019-7}}, p. 121.</ref> Its draft was developed by the leading minds of the [[Enlightenment in Poland]] such as King [[Stanislaw August Poniatowski]], [[Stanisław Staszic]], [[Scipione Piattoli]], [[Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz]], [[Ignacy Potocki]] and [[Hugo Kołłątaj]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.communications-unlimited.nl/the-polish-constitution-of-may-3rd-a-milestone-in-the-history-of-law-and-the-rise-of-democracy/ |title=The Polish Constitution of May 3rd – a milestone in the history of law and the rise of democracy |access-date=2018-09-14}}</ref> It was adopted by the [[Great Sejm]] and is considered the first constitution of its kind in Europe and the world's second oldest one after the American Constitution.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.postdiploma.pl/ConstENA5.pdf |title=The Constitution of May 3 (1791) |access-date=2018-09-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171116194049/http://www.postdiploma.pl/ConstENA5.pdf |archive-date=November 16, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Another landmark document was the [[French Constitution of 1791]].

The [[1811 Constitution of Venezuela]] was the first [[Constitution of Venezuela|Constitution]] of [[Venezuela]] and Latin America, promulgated and drafted by [[Cristóbal Mendoza]]<ref name="Diccionario_Perozo_1999">Briceño Perozo, Mario. "Mendoza, Cristóbal de" in ''Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela'', Vol. 3. Caracas: Fundación Polar, 1999. {{ISBN|980-6397-37-1}}</ref> and [[Juan Germán Roscio]] and in [[Caracas]]. It established a federal government but was repealed one year later.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://research.kent.ac.uk/warandnation/1811-miranda-declares-independence-in-venezuela-and-civil-war-begins/|title=1811 Miranda Declares Independence in Venezuela and Civil War Begins|website=War and Nation: identity and the process of state-building in South America (1800-1840)|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-02-01}}</ref>

On 19 March 1812, the [[Spanish Constitution of 1812]] was ratified by a [[Cortes Generales|parliament]] gathered in [[Cadiz]], the only Spanish continental city which was safe from [[Peninsular War|French occupation]]. The Spanish Constitution served as a model for other liberal constitutions of several [[South Europe]]an and [[Latin America]]n nations, for example, the [[Liberal Revolution of 1820|Portuguese Constitution of 1822]], constitutions of various [[Italy|Italian]] states during [[Carbonari]] revolts (i.e., in the [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]]), [[Constitution of Norway|the Norwegian constitution of 1814]], or the [[1824 Constitution of Mexico|Mexican Constitution of 1824]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Payne |first=Stanley G. |author-link=Stanley G. Payne |title=A History of Spain and Portugal: Eighteenth Century to Franco |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofspainpo00payn/page/432 |volume=2 |year=1973 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |location=Madison |isbn=978-0-299-06270-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofspainpo00payn/page/432 432–433] |quote=The Spanish pattern of conspiracy and revolt by liberal army officers ... was emulated in both Portugal and Italy. In the wake of Riego's successful rebellion, the first and only pronunciamiento in Italian history was carried out by liberal officers in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The Spanish-style military conspiracy also helped to inspire the beginning of the Russian revolutionary movement with the revolt of the [[Decembrist revolt|Decembrist army officers]] in 1825. Italian liberalism in 1820–1821 relied on junior officers and the provincial middle classes, essentially the same social base as in Spain. It even used a Hispanized political vocabulary, for it was led by ''giunte'' (juntas), appointed local ''capi politici'' (''jefes políticos''), used the terms of ''liberali'' and ''servili'' (emulating the Spanish word serviles applied to supporters of absolutism), and in the end talked of resisting by means of a ''guerrilla''. For both Portuguese and Italian liberals of these years, the Spanish constitution of 1812 remained the standard document of reference. }}</ref>

In [[Brazil]], the [[Brazilian Constitution of 1824|Constitution of 1824]] expressed the option for the monarchy as a political system after Brazilian Independence. The leader of the national emancipation process was the Portuguese prince [[Pedro I of Brazil|Pedro I]], the elder son of the king of Portugal. Pedro was crowned in 1822 as the first emperor of Brazil. The country was ruled by a Constitutional Monarchy until 1889 when it adopted the Republican model.

In [[Denmark]], as a result of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], the [[absolute monarchy]] lost its personal possession of [[Norway]] to [[Sweden]]. Sweden had already enacted its [[Instrument of Government (1809)|1809 Instrument of Government]], which saw the division of power between the [[Riksdag of Sweden|Riksdag]], the king and the [[judiciary]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=Leif |last=Lewin |title=Majoritarian and Consensus Democracy: the Swedish Experience |journal=Scandinavian Political Studies |volume=21 |issue=3 |date=1 May 2007 |pages=195–206 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9477.1998.tb00012.x | issn = 0080-6757}}</ref> However the Norwegians managed to infuse a radically democratic and liberal [[Constitution of Norway|constitution]] in 1814, adopting many facets from the American constitution and the revolutionary French ones, but maintaining a hereditary [[Constitutional monarchy|monarch]] limited by the constitution, like the Spanish one.

The first [[Swiss Federal Constitution]] was put in force in September 1848 (with official revisions in 1878, 1891, 1949, 1971, 1982 and 1999).

The [[Serbian revolution]] initially led to a proclamation of a proto-constitution in 1811; the full-fledged Constitution of Serbia followed few decades later, in 1835. The first Serbian constitution (Sretenjski ustav) was adopted at the national assembly in [[Kragujevac]] on 15 February 1835.

The [[Constitution of Canada]] came into force on 1 July 1867, as the British North America Act, an act of the British Parliament. Over a century later, the BNA Act was patriated to the Canadian Parliament and augmented with the [[Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/laws/stat/schedule-b-to-the-canada-act-1982-uk-1982-c-11/latest/schedule-b-to-the-canada-act-1982-uk-1982-c-11.html#sec60|title=Constitution Act, 1982, s. 60}}</ref> Apart from the ''Constitution Acts, 1867 to 1982'', Canada's constitution also has unwritten elements based in common law and convention.<ref>The Constitutional Law Group, Canadian Constitutional Law. 3rd ed. Toronto: Emond Montgomery Publications Ltd., 2003, p. 5</ref><ref>Saul, John Ralston. ''The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense''. Toronto: Penguin, 1995.</ref>