Politics & International Relations
US Constitution
The US Constitution is the supreme law of the United States, outlining the structure of the federal government, the rights of the people, and the relationship between the government and its citizens. It was ratified in 1788 and has since been amended 27 times. The Constitution serves as the foundation for the country's political system and is a cornerstone of American democracy.
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5 Key excerpts on "US Constitution"
eBook - ePub- Cynthia Metcalf, Rhonda Atkinson(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Research & Education Association(Publisher)
Research has been theory-based, values-neutral, and concerned with predicting and explaining political behavior. COMPETENCY 3.1 Identify the features and principles of the U.S. Constitution, including its amendments, the separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism. Features of the U.S. Constitution Constitutional Foundations The government of the United States rests on a written framework created to strengthen a loose confederation that was in crisis in the 1780s. The Constitution is a basic plan that outlines the structure and functions of the national government. Clearly rooted in Western political thought, it sets limits on government and protects both property and individual rights. Historical Background Following the successful revolt of the British colonies in North America against imperial rule, a plan of government was implemented that was consciously weak and ultimately ineffective, the Articles of Confederation. The Articles served as the national government from 1781–1787. The government under the Articles consisted of a unicameral (one house) legislature that was clearly subordinate to the states. Congressional representatives were appointed and paid by their respective state legislatures and their mission was to protect the interests of their home states. Each state, regardless of size, had one vote in Congress, as had been the case in the Continental Congress, which could request, but not require, states to provide financial and military support
eBook - PDFThe United States Constitution
Questions and Answers
- John R. Vile(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- ABC-CLIO(Publisher)
Chapter 1 Foundations and Purposes of the United States Constitution AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONALISM AND ITS MOST BASIC PRINCIPLES What is a constitution? When Americans think about a constitution, they typically think of a written document, unchangeable by ordinary legislative means, which out- lines the major institutions of government, distributes and divides govern- mental powers among such institutions, and outlines basic protections for individual rights. Do all countries have a constitution? All governments except perhaps for those in a state of anarchy, or chaos, have a way of doing things, but not all have a single written document, like the U.S. Constitution, that serves as a guide to these practices and that can serve as a basis for legal action in cases where governments violate such guidelines. What are the alternatives to a written constitution? Leaders of dictatorial governments may prefer to operate solely according to their own wills rather than to be bound by a commitment to established procedures, but even democratic governments may not rely on a written constitution like that in the United States. The British government, for ex- ample, has what is known, not altogether accurately (since it is based in part on written documents), as an “unwritten” constitution. Britain has estab- lished relatively clear procedures for adopting laws, calling elections, and the like, but these are recognized as established customs and usages, or scat- tered in a variety of laws and decisions, rather than embodied in a single written document like the U.S. Constitution. Moreover, the English system operates according to the principle of parliamentary sovereignty, whereby whatever the established customs and usages may be, there are no fixed constitutional limits on the powers of the national legislature, or parliament.
eBook - PDFThe Revolution, the Constitution, and America's Third Century, Vols. 1-2
The Bicentennial Conference on the United States Constitution
- American Academy of Political and Social Science(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
There wasn't genuine consensus underlying the policy, and that led to encroachments upon other aspects of government. Our attitude toward the Constitution was framed when the United States was not so clearly an important country. Now, especially in the context of foreign policy and the Constitution, we are trying to think as a nuclear superpower, capable of decisive and rapid action. The whole notion of the distribution of power over the conduct of war, a fundamental issue in the constitutional context, is difficult to implement under contemporary circumstances. The special position of the United States in the world relates to the concerns Joe Clark voiced: namely, a genuine split emerging within the society and its leadership as to whether or not to pursue a traditional kind of national interest perspective in implementing America's participation in the world, or to adopt more of what Brzezinski calls global humanism, or planetary political perspectives, something that tries to take a prac-tical, as distinct from a rhetorical, account of a change in world cir-cumstances. The United States and the World 347 In other words, part of our identity is global, and we must realize this leads to dissatisfaction within the body politic. It makes it diffi-cult to mobilize the consensus that works smoothly within the con-stitutional structure. That kind of ineffectuality in a period of transition, hopefully to a new consensus, is essentially a healthy by-product of the constitu-tional arrangement, rather than something one should seek to over-come. Park: Covey Oliver has raised a good point on the difficulty of ex-plaining to others the nature of our foreign policy system. My experi-ence has been that members of foreign governments understand the complexities reasonably well, although publicly they sometimes use the complexities of our system as a scapegoat to make their own policies appear more clear.
eBook - PDFReclaiming Constitutionalism
Democracy, Power and the State
- Maria Tzanakopoulou(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Hart Publishing(Publisher)
Constitutions are not value-neutral legal documents. One cannot under-stand them unless one understands what values they are seeking to promote. They are living representations of the politics which made them and which consume them. Law is not autonomous neither superior to mere politics and especially public law, which is essentially and deeply a political subject. 26 If one reads between the lines, it is suggested that constitutionalism is directed at maintenance and reproduction of political structures; the slowing down of the pace of any possible ideological, and therefore political, change. Crucial in the process of consensus-generation is the concept of the undivided nation, the demarcation of the ‘inside’ from the ‘outside’. Indeed, the distinction between the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ is essential to constitutionalism. 27 It is essen-tial, first because it is on the basis of the internal ‘commonness’ that the particu-larities of one’s social position are blocked out when compared to the common good of the nation. It is essential, secondly, because it is on the basis of the cover-up of social asymmetries that social consensus is created. It is partly a task of the constitution to demarcate these boundaries although this demarcation is never complete and is always permeated by contradictions. The constitutional moment is the opening act of the creation of a new legal order, the ‘constitutional big bang’ as it is sometimes called. 28 In this, it becomes the institutional expression of the state’s enclosure, of its separation from the rest of the world. 29 It is the very same moment that may often transform a multitude into ‘the people’ and which meta-morphoses the crowd into the citizenry through the declaration of the constituent power’s will to unite under a common legal order. 35 Constitutionalism, Ideology, Consensus 30 Ernest Gellner explains that for every 10 ethnic groups only 1 is accompanied by a constitutional nation state.
eBook - PDFFoundations of Democracy in the European Union
From the Genesis of Parliamentary Democracy to the European Parliament
- J. Pinder(Author)
- 1999(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
Power always thinks it has a great Soul, and vast Views, beyond the com- prehension of the weak; and that it is doing God Service, when it is violating all his Laws.' 17 Such opinions were especially pervasive as the Anglo- American crisis deepened, for Americans stood in the same relation to the politics of the British court and government as did the opposition writers. Like their British friends, they wished to return to the purity of the putative ancient constitution; as a North Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress insisted in 1776, 'I am well assured that the British constitution in its purity (for what is at present styled the British constitution is an apostate), was a system that approached as near to perfection as any could within the compass of human abilities.' 18 50 Foundations of Democracy in the European Union American constitutions The American revolution created a republic whose success depended on selective, not total, emancipation from British political culture. The first state constitutions which, together with the United States Constitution of 1787 formed the new regime, had strong roots in British custom, tradition, principles and practice. Many English constitutional principles were translated, adapted in light of experience, and incorporated into American usage; some came from orthodox English sources, others from the alternative constitutional principles of radical 'commonwealthmen' or 'real whigs' which were often a more attractive paradigm. The same was true of the US Constitution: even the allocation of authority between Congress and the states was essentially a restatement in different terms of the problem the colonists had attempted to resolve within the empire. 19 The process of development began contemporaneously with the bid for independence in 1776. Each state drafted its own constitution, but though all were confident of the central principles they wished to implement they were unsure exactly how to do it.
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