This chapter discusses Ernst Fränkel’s analysis of Nazi Germany as a dual state that combined remnants of legal governance with a practice of permanent dictatorship. It is argued that Fränkel’s dual state thesis sheds a critical light on recent appropriations of the notion of material constitution. This claim is developed by way of an analysis and defence of Fränkel’s critique of Carl Schmitt’s concrete order thought.

Compared to figures like Hermann Heller or Carl Schmitt, Rudolf Smend´s heritage in German constitutional law seems to be at the same time more evident and more obscure. More evident because powerful constitutional lawyers like Konrad Hesse, Horst Ehmke and Peter Häberle were heavily influenced by Smend and because, last but not least, the German Federal Constitutional Court took up several parts of Smend´s doctrine in its judgements – mostly in the area of fundamental rights. More obscure because it is highly debatable not only whether Smend´s legal thought is actually still alive in dominant constitutional doctrines like the proportionality test, the balancing of constitutional goods, cooperative federalism or even fundamentals of immigration and citizenship law – but also whether Smend´s influence on Germany´s material constitution has been, on the whole, advantageous for post-war legal development. Beyond that, it is worthwhile looking at how Smend´s ideas were assimilated, but also transformed in important ways in highly influential casebooks and monographs such as Konrad Hesse´s Grundzüge des Verfassungsrechts der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

This chapter is concerned with the material constitution of the federation as a discrete form of political association. The chapter shows that the federation is a political order founded on an interstate agreement of constitutional nature between its Member States. This constitutional contract gives birth to the Union as a new institutionalised legal and political order and transforms the constitutions of its Member States in a material sense by relativising the dialectical relationship between governors and governed that lies at the heart of state sovereignty. The federation is characterised by a dual political existence, the Union and the Member States, which stand in a heterarchical relationship to one another. The federation is a dynamic order, characterised by the continual construction of political identity of both the Union and Member States.

This chapter deals with material approaches of the constitution in Greek constitutional thought. First, it shows that, in the interwar period, a sociological approach of the constitution was developed, which focused on socio-economic forces and on their impact on the 1927 republican constitution. Second, it demonstrates that, in the post-civil war period, a normative understanding of the material constitution was developed but it was also opposed from a formalist perspective. This perspective will be understood through the historical context of this period, which was deeply marked by the existence of a ‘para-constitution’ that undermined civil and political rights. Third, it explores the metapolitefsi period, in which the relation between the formal constitution and the social and political forces was explored by Greek constitutional scholars as an object of juristic knowledge. In this period, Costantino Mortati’s concept of the material constitution was introduced in Greek constitutional thought and was criticised. The direction of this critique was marked by the influence of Nicos Poulantzas’s theory on Greek constitutional theorists.

This chapter discusses the conceptual benefits and drawbacks of the notion of the material constitution from the standpoint of a sympathetic critic. It proceeds by identifying three separate but overlapping registers in which the concept is invoked; as an ideologically inflected and often politically charged rhetorical contrast with the formal legal constitution, as thetheoretical fulcrum of a particular explanatory scheme and as a general methodological orientation towards generousconsideration of the bearingof non-legal factors upon constitutional outcomes. The rhetorical roots and the narrower theoretical understandings of the concept can leave it mired in disagreement and even confusion over the fluid terms and implications of the binary opposition typically drawn with the non-material dimension of the constitution. As a general methodological framework it holds much more promise, although questions remain over whether broader adjectival concerns with the various dimensions of material constitutionality might provide a more flexible methodological opening than a focus on the ‘material constitution’ asa discrete polity-specific object.

This chapter revisits Carl Schmitt’s argument about constitutional identity. By excavating Schmitt’s material conception of constitutional law, I chart the path of affective constitutionalism in the interwar period of the twentieth century. To facilitate the task of relating mind to matter, I bring to bear insights from Raymond Williams, the literary theorist, and develop an argument about constitutions as ’structures of feeling’. By making this approach to materiality usable for thinking about the affective life of constitutions, I hope to bring phenomenology – the philosophy of experience – to the study of constitutional law.

Parent and family engagement in early education programs is associated with better developmental outcomes for children. This chapter reviews theory and research on family engagement in early childhood programs, including home visiting, with an eye towards how dual-generation programs and services are delivered to support healthy parenting and enhance child development. We emphasize how publicly-funded school readiness programs serving low-income families, such as Head Start, serve as a key context for reaching parents and families with services that support the development of their children. Evaluations of interventions embedded within Head Start have shown that programs supporting family engagement at home and in preschool have direct benefits for young children; however, longitudinal evidence of impacts is less robust. Taking what we know about family engagement to scale requires a careful consideration of what is known to facilitate such engagement, and what barriers exist to including parents of culturally and linguistically diverse children in these efforts. We conclude our chapter with an examinination of the implications of our findings for policy and practice such as the expansion of affordable early care and education programs, increasing access to culturally sensitive and inclusive parenting programs, and outreach to families via greater integration across early care and education programs, schools, community organizations, and medical/health settings that promote health and well-being of children and families both in the United States and internationally.

In this chapter we focus specifically on parenting from birth to age 5, a period marked by rapid development for the child and widely believed to set the foundation and quality of the emerging parent-child relationship. We begin with an overview of key developmental milestones, stages and transitions that influence the emergence and evolution of parenting over the period from birth to age 5. Then we review relations between five dimensions of parenting (sensitivity and parent child attachment, socialization, cognitive stimulation, discipline, and maltreatment) and relevant child outcomes, attending to child characteristics that moderate these associations. Next, we described parental characteristics and experiences that predict parenting behavior and child outcomes. These include: normative parental beliefs and emotions; acculturation processes and discrimination; childhood experiences; adult stress and trauma; and psychopathology. Throughout our review, we attend to the roles of race, ethnicity, and culture. This is followed by consideration of the value of this work for policy, prevention, and intervention efforts. In the summary, we draw attention to recent advances in this line of inquiry along with remaining limitations. We conclude by emphasizing our primary thesis: parenting in infancy and early childhood is a key factor that can enhance or undermine children’s concurrent and long-term wellbeing and achievement depending on the quality and context in which it occurs.

Human infants are born needing their caregivers’ support to accomplish challenges related to both security and exploration. Accordingly, the quality of care infants receive influences their ability to appraise the degree of threat inherent to any challenge, signal needs for assistance, and regulate their responses. In this manner, parenting affects whether young children manage challenges with behavior or physiological responses. The extent to which stress physiology is repeatedly invoked in response to challenges, alongside variation in neural growth accompanying children’s exploratory behavior, in turn affects neurodevelopment and ultimately functioning with age. We discuss the processes through which this occurs, the potential impact on attachment schemas, and implications for intervention programs designed at improving parenting and well-being.

The field of mental health is experiencing a trend toward the implementation of early intervention using empirically validated parent-training programs. These programs serve to promote the social-emotional development, communication skills, and school readiness of children. Unfortunately, access to services to improve parenting behaviors is severely limited for many families, especially low-income families who live in rural areas. Through the use of recent advances in multimedia technology and the ubiquity of mobile/computer networking via the Internet, there now exists an opportunity to provide interventions to families distally. As well, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to use technology in order maintain safety. In response, remote-access interactive parenting interventions are emerging. Interactive Internet/mobile Computer Mediated Interventions (IICMI) in the home overcome common obstacles for parent participation, such as lack of transportation, harsh weather, long distances or schedule conflicts and have the capacity to provide menus of choices efficiently, tailor information to subject characteristics and interests, manage interactive programming, and provide support to professionals and peers. Yet, the digital divide mirrors health disparities and the process of getting accurate, best-practice information is harder rather than easier. This chapters seeks to address the issues associated with remote delivery of parent-training programs.

This chapter provides an overview of parents’ discipline and punishment in relation to child development. Main types of discipline (e.g., inductive reasoning, love withdrawal, power assertion) are described, and child- (e.g., behavior problems), parent- (e.g., stress), and community- (e.g., norms) level predictors of discipline are considered. The chapter then describes moderators (child gender, child age, temperament, overall climate of the parent-child relationship, and culture) and mediators (children’s perceptions of parental love and affection, social information processing, development of empathy and conscience, neurocognition) of associations between discipline and child outcomes. Next, implications of research on discipline for practice and policy are discussed in terms of the international agenda set by the Sustainable Development Goals, national bans on corporal punishment, and parenting interventions focused on discipline. The chapter concludes by examining limitations of the current research and suggesting directions for future research.

Parent-child relationships are extremely important for sexual and gender minoritized youth as they and their families navigate the challenges of “coming out” and living in a highly heteronormative and often homonegative and transnegative society. This chapter presents the current terminology for and demography of LGBTQ youth in the United States; discusses the unique experiences of LGBTQ children and their parents, including child and parent reactions to the coming out process and its reverberations through the family system; reviews the emerging scientific literature on parenting effects on LGBTQ child health and well-being; and considers the implications for policy and clinical practice that support parents of LGBTQ youth in ways that foster nurturance, advocacy, and the health and well-being of both youth and parents.

In the minds of many parents and in the eyes of the law in many countries, becoming an adult is signified by turning age 18. As nice as it might be to think that simply turning a certain age automatically equips an individual with all of the knowledge, skills, and abilities requisite to independently and successfully navigate adulthood, the reality is that becoming an adult is a process. As such, parents continue to play an important role in the process of their children becoming adults. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the many important ways that parents still matter in the lives of their children during emerging adulthood. In order to do this, first, a theoretical and developmental foundation will be provided for why it is important to consider the contributions of parents during emerging adulthood (ages 18-29). Next, a review of the literature will show the specific ways in which parenting is linked to emerging adults’ flourishing and floundering, respectively, including the role that culture may play in these relations. Finally, the chapter will include a framework for parents to think about how to parent during this time.