21. February 2010
Leven(de) Grondwet (Living Constitution) – About the Constitutional identity and communicative possibilities of the Dutch Constitution
This research is a visual and strategic advice on the current and future identification processes of citizens with the Dutch Constitution (Grondwet). Also the communicative possibilities of the Constitution in the context of hybrid society has been explored. The project concludes with four conceptual and thematic narratives that tell the various important meanings of the Dutch Constitution to Dutch citizens.
- Assignment: Development of scenario's of how the Dutch Constitution can be made more known and how the identification Dutch citizens with it can be actualized. It is an exploration of the communicative challenges which have to be faced.
- Commissioner and research partner: Ministry of General Affairs/ Public Information Service (RVD), The Netherlands
- Authorship: Evert Ypma
Participants Multiplicity & Visual Identities 07/08 (Design2context, Zurich University of the Arts): Emanuela Bonini-Lessing; Karlijn Budel; Simon Heptonstall; Femke Herregraven; Bouwe van der Molen; Julie Royer; Bernhard Sturm; Rahel Witschi; Paul Hughes. - Cooperation partners: Paul van Nunen (Head Communication Prime Minister, Public Information Service / RVD) and Marielle Selser (Project leader 1Logo) Ministry of General Affairs, The Hague; Birgit Dewez and Martin van Haeften, Ministry of Interior and Kindom Relationships, The Hague; Regula Stämpfli, Brussels; Clemens Bellut, Design2context/ZHdK, Zürich Felix Janssens, Rotterdam (MVI 07/08)
- Year: 2007-2008
Selection of the research
Visible (text) and invisible Constitution (lived by norms, values and rules).
Johan Rudolph Thorbecke (1798-1872) drafted the revision of the Constitution of the Netherlands.
Trias Politica
The first sentence of the Constitution outside the Parliament building in The Hague.
Time line of the development of the Constitution.
Time line of the Constitution in social cultural context.
Legal citizenship vs. civic citizenship
Horizontal and vertical forces of amendments and conflicting amendments of the Constitution: the freedom of speech vs the prohibition to offend or to discriminate.
Problems and challenges of current embedding of the Constitution within society.
The missing representation of the Constitution in the current organization of the constitutional law.
Disposition of conceptual scenario's
How to perceive the Constitution in relation to the Head of State and the Trias Politica?
Disposition A.
The Constitution is from the citizen.
Disposition B.
The Constitution is the connecting foundation of society.
Disposition C.
The Constitution is above all and everything.
Disposition D.
The Constitution is a returning reference and will be actively articulated when possible.
Four dispositions of the Constitution.
The government is formed by the people.
Four narratives to tell the stories about the Constitution
Narrative 1.
The Constitution is from the people.
Narrative 2.
The Constitution is a collective responsibility and organizes the democracy of the Netherlands.
Narrative 3.
The Constitution tells the (historical) story of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Narrative 4.
The Constitution functions as guideline for actual and future public reasoning and decision making processes.