PLSS: The Articulated Constitution: Rethinking the State–Society Matrix

On Thursday, 26 February 2026, Dr Ming-Sung Kuo (University of Warwick) presented on ‘The Articulated Constitution: Rethinking the State–Society Matrix’. The presentation was part of the GCDC’s Public Law Seminar Series.

In the seminar, Dr Kuo explored how the state-society matrix has been considered in constitutional terms in the literature. He provided a four-variety typology of positions on the state-society relationship in the project of constitutional governance: the limitation model, the competition model, the re-presentation model, and the delegation model. He argued that none of these models is satisfactory. In the first two models, the state and society are regarded as in tension with each other. Meanwhile, the last two models view the state and society as existing in an integrated constitutional order.

Dr Kuo then proposed an alternative view of the state-society matrix, under which the state and society are reflexively articulated to each other. Under this model, the state is not necessarily in tension with society, nor is society completely integrated to the state. Rather, the state and society are part of the structure of articulation in which the stages of politics – from the floating of ideas to their turning into political action and the holding of government to account – are reflexively articulated across the state-society distinction. In this way, the state-society matrix remains but the distinction between state and society is in a dynamic mode.

Following the presentation, Professor Oliver Gerstenberg (UCL Laws) and Dr Bernard Keenan (UCL Laws) offered their remarks, leading into further discussions with participants at the seminar. The event was chaired by Professor Erin Delaney (UCL Laws).

Watch a video recording of the seminar on UCL Laws’ YouTube channel, or view it directly below.