Systemic corruption is a form of political decay linked to inequality and the oligarchization of society, a process by which the superrich control the political process, pushing for laws and policies that benefit big corporations in detriment of the common people. To account for ever-expanding systemic corruption and oligarchic domination, I have proposed to use a material method to study constitutions, which is premised on the idea that the organization of political power cannot be analysed without taking into account socioeconomic power structures and the ways in which States enable some kinds of actions while disabling others, targeting specific groups through the criminalization and legalization of certain behaviours, as well as through the selective enforcement of rules and penalties that appear as neutral. In this paper I will lay out the basic premises and philosophical foundations of material constitutionalism and compare it to legal formalism and proceduralism.
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