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_ _What is meant by{_}_ ''filll_ _andfreefull and free political discourse_ _"?-By "full" political  discourse is meant discourse in which_ _(1)_ _"no political claim, including any claim for a  comprehensive assessment, is \[either proscribed or\] immune to contestation"; (2) and,  "any political claim, when questioned, needs discursive or argumentative redemption."  ("Discursive or argumentative redemption" of a claim "means, summarily stated, the  giving of reasons that command acceptance of the claim by any citizen who understands  the argument." Redemption, or validation, ofaof a claim is thus distinguished from special  pleading, wherein "at least one of ofthethe considerations or premises advanced is merely  assumed or posited, so that acceptance of ofthethe claim is not rationally required \[of\] citizens  who do not grant the assumption \[or position\]. ") "Free" political discourse means "all  have equal standing in the political process, and validation is the proper aim when  disagreement occurs, precisely because the sovereignty ofeachof each citizen's assessment is  equal to that of any other in determining how all will be ruled" (cf. 1010)._ _

What should be included and not included in the "specific constitutional provisions" of a properly democratic constitution?-The specific constitutional 

_3{_}{_}specific constitutional provisions of a properly democratic constitution should include "equal rights to certain  private liberties (for instance, the right to life, to control one's own body, and to  conscience) and to certain public liberties (for instance, the right to free speech and  assembly, to the franchise, to due process, and to equal protection of the laws). These  rights define each citizen as always a potential, and sometimes an actual, participant in  full and free political discourse." "Because the discourse is political or seeks to order the  community as a whole, the constitution must also provide the institutions and offices of  decision making through which discussion and debate determine activities of the state,  and the basic criterion for \[designing\] this decision-making is to maximize the measure in  which political outcomes are informed by full and free discourse among 'we the people'"  (cf 1010 f). But these specific provisions that a properly democratic constitution should  include are all "formative" in character in that they serve simply to found or constitute  "government through full and free discourse." As such, they are importantly  distinguished from all_ _II_ _'substantive' political norms, principles, and proposals, including  ... comprehensive assessments," the mark of a formative principle being "precisely that  adherence to it is explicitly neutral to all political conflicts, because \[such adherence\] is  nothing other than commitment to politics by the way of reason. In contrast, a substantive  claim takes sides within one or more possible political disagreements" (l012). But, then,  just as all necessary_ _formative_ _provisions should be included in the specific provisions of  a properly democratic constitution, all_ _substantive_ _provisions should, for the same reason,  not be included. This means that a properly democratic constitution whose specific  provisions should include all so-called civil rights should not include among its  provisions any social and economic rights, all of which are properly the business, not of  the constitution, but of government by the people, and thus by the way of reason,_ _under_ _under the constitution (cf 1017 f)._ _Blit{_}{_} 

But isn't a conytitution cOf\!finedconstitution confined to civil rights and exclusive_ _\~lcertain_ _ of certain social and economic economicrights rightsfralldulentfraudulent, in that it itfailsfails to take account (?lthethe hasicbasic needyneeds that have to be he met_ _ff_if _indeed, all member.,,>'_ _\~fthe_ _ members of the political community are to be together as equals?_
_No­No, such a constitution is not fraudulent because "affirming that all have substantive  economic and social rights \[that\] the state should secure is one thing, and stipulating  those rights constitutionally another. That democracy itself will fail without substantive justice does not entail that principles \[of substantive justice\] should be constitutionally  determined" (cf 1017 f). The difference between constitutional law and statutory law is  not the same as the difference between more important and less important, so that the  great importance of certain substantive rights automatically entitles them to be stipulated constitutionally._

_"\[T\]he comprehensive question" is "the question of what comprehensive assessment is valid and how it should be applied in particular governmental laws and policies" (1013)._{_}It_ _ constitutionally. It is arguable, on the contrary, that "substantive justice is too important  to be constitutionally defined, because no such definition can be valid unless it can be  contested and redeemed by argument. " Moreover, were substantive rights to be  constitutionally stipulated, securing them would be integral to the ethics of citizenship,  and they would be immune to contestation, all political assessments of all citizens being  required to be consistent with them. Therefore, all that can be said if democracy, or  popular sovereignty, is to prevail, is that a "democratic constitution_ _anticipates_ _that full  and free political discourse will be, at least in tolerable measure successful and thus will,  through statutory law, provide or promote for all citizens the substantive conditions  necessary to full political equality. Insofar as this anticipation is unmet, the political  community is at odds with its constitution, not the constitution with itself. Success in the  constituted political process cannot be constitutionally guaranteed, and this is simply to  say that government by the people depends entirely on the people" (cf 1018)_ 

"\[T\]he comprehensive question" is "the question of what comprehensive assessment is valid and how it should be applied in particular governmental laws and policies" (1013).