The chapter introduces and analyses authoritarian constitutionalism as an important phenomenon in its own right, not merely a deficient or deviant version of liberal constitutionalism. It is therefore not adequate to dismiss it as a sham or windowdressing. Instead, its crucial features – executivist technique of governing, participation as complicity, power as property and the cult of immediacy – are related to the basic assumption that authoritarian constitutions are texts with a purpose that warrant careful analysis by the domestic and transnational audience.