How Democratic Is the American Constitution? - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook How Democratic Is the American Constitution? write by Robert A. Dahl. This book was released on 2003-11-10. How Democratic Is the American Constitution? available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. In this provocative book, one of our most eminent political scientists questions the extent to which the American Constitution furthers democratic goals. Robert Dahl reveals the Constitution's potentially antidemocratic elements and explains why they are there, compares the American constitutional system to other democratic systems, and explores how we might alter our political system to achieve greater equality among citizens. In a new chapter for this second edition, he shows how increasing differences in state populations revealed by the Census of 2000 have further increased the veto power over constitutional amendments held by a tiny minority of Americans. He then explores the prospects for changing some important political practices that are not prescribed by the written Constitution, though most Americans may assume them to be so.
How Democratic is the Constitution?
How Democratic is the Constitution? - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook How Democratic is the Constitution? write by Robert A. Goldwin. This book was released on 1980. How Democratic is the Constitution? available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. To find more information about Rowman and Littlefield titles, please visit www.rowmanlittlefield.com.
Active Liberty
Active Liberty - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Active Liberty write by Stephen Breyer. This book was released on 2007-12-18. Active Liberty available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. A brilliant new approach to the Constitution and courts of the United States by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.For Justice Breyer, the Constitution’s primary role is to preserve and encourage what he calls “active liberty”: citizen participation in shaping government and its laws. As this book argues, promoting active liberty requires judicial modesty and deference to Congress; it also means recognizing the changing needs and demands of the populace. Indeed, the Constitution’s lasting brilliance is that its principles may be adapted to cope with unanticipated situations, and Breyer makes a powerful case against treating it as a static guide intended for a world that is dead and gone. Using contemporary examples from federalism to privacy to affirmative action, this is a vital contribution to the ongoing debate over the role and power of our courts.
How to Save a Constitutional Democracy
How to Save a Constitutional Democracy - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook How to Save a Constitutional Democracy write by Tom Ginsburg. This book was released on 2018-10-05. How to Save a Constitutional Democracy available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Democracies are in danger. Around the world, a rising wave of populist leaders threatens to erode the core structures of democratic self-rule. In the United States, the tenure of Donald Trump has seemed decisive turning point for many. What kind of president intimidates jurors, calls the news media the “enemy of the American people,” and seeks foreign assistance investigating domestic political rivals? Whatever one thinks of President Trump, many think the Constitution will safeguard us from lasting damage. But is that assumption justified? How to Save a Constitutional Democracy mounts an urgent argument that we can no longer afford to be complacent. Drawing on a rich array of other countries’ experiences with democratic backsliding, Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Z. Huq show how constitutional rules can both hinder and hasten the decline of democratic institutions. The checks and balances of the federal government, a robust civil society and media, and individual rights—such as those enshrined in the First Amendment—often fail as bulwarks against democratic decline. The sobering reality for the United States, Ginsburg and Huq contend, is that the Constitution’s design makes democratic erosion more, not less, likely. Its structural rigidity has had unforeseen consequence—leaving the presidency weakly regulated and empowering the Supreme Court conjure up doctrines that ultimately facilitate rather than inhibit rights violations. Even the bright spots in the Constitution—the First Amendment, for example—may have perverse consequences in the hands of a deft communicator who can degrade the public sphere by wielding hateful language banned in many other democracies. We—and the rest of the world—can do better. The authors conclude by laying out practical steps for how laws and constitutional design can play a more positive role in managing the risk of democratic decline.
Our Undemocratic Constitution
Our Undemocratic Constitution - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Our Undemocratic Constitution write by Sanford Levinson. This book was released on 2008. Our Undemocratic Constitution available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Levinson here argues that too many of our Constitution's provisions promote either unjust or ineffective government. Under the existing blueprint, we can neither rid ourselves of incompetent presidents nor assure continuity of government following catastrophic attacks. Worse, our Constitution is the most difficult to amend or update in the world. Levinson boldly challenges the Americans to undertake a long overdue public discussion on how they might best reform this most hallowed document and construct a constitution adequate to our democratic values.
