The article focuses on different political writings published in England during the second half of the seventeenth century, in which many forms of legislation, institutions and ways of governing were developed to overcome the unprecedented crisis of sovereignty caused by civil wars. It is argued that these forms can be termed as "constitutional proposals" not only for presenting themselves as alternatives to the bankruptcy of the Old Constitution, but also for characterizing themselves as the founding act of a new political society. In examining the different meanings of constitution in the selected period, especially in the People's Agreement drawn up by levellers, Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, James Harrington's Oceana, and John Locke's Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, the article challenges the too rigid characterization between ancient and modern constitutionalism
Constitution; People; Sovereignty; Law; Government