The author opens the book by considering the notion of the constitution, its definition and variation in meaning across the history of political philosophy, concluding that the only legitimate constitution is one that guarantees freedom: “A constitution is a guarantor of freedom or it is no constitution.” The author threads this maxim through the rest of the debates of the constitutionality (or lack thereof) and ‘perversion’ of parliamentarism in socialist regimes, as well is post-socialist Yugoslavia.