Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (And How We the People Can Correct It)Oxford University Press, 28. 9. 2006. - 272 страница Levinson 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. Less important, perhaps, but certainly problematic, is the appointment of Supreme Court judges for life. Adding insult to injury, the United States Constitution is the most difficult to amend or update of any constitution currently existing in the world today. Democratic debate leaves few stones unturned, but we tend to take our basic constitutional structures for granted. Levinson boldly challenges the American people 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. "Admirably gutsy and unfashionable." --Michael Kinsley, The New York Times "Bold, bracingly unromantic, and filled with illuminating insights. He accomplishes an unlikely feat, which is to make a really serious argument for a new constitutional convention, one that is founded squarely on democratic ideals." --Cass R. Sunstein, The New Republic "Everyone who cares about how our government works should read this thoughtful book." --Washington Lawyer |
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Страница 9
... critical of certain tendencies in the Constitution “ought to be referred to the composition and structure of the government, not to the nature or extent of its powers.”14 He is correct. In many ways, we are like the police officer in ...
... critical of certain tendencies in the Constitution “ought to be referred to the composition and structure of the government, not to the nature or extent of its powers.”14 He is correct. In many ways, we are like the police officer in ...
Страница 15
... critical eye to the compromise of 1787 that granted all states an equal vote in the Senate. To criticize that particular compromise—or any of the other features of the Constitution that I shall examine below—is not necessarily to ...
... critical eye to the compromise of 1787 that granted all states an equal vote in the Senate. To criticize that particular compromise—or any of the other features of the Constitution that I shall examine below—is not necessarily to ...
Страница 17
... critical analysis. Jefferson was fully capable of writing that “[w]e may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than ...
... critical analysis. Jefferson was fully capable of writing that “[w]e may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than ...
Страница 19
... critical faculties and actually assess the relationship between the great ends set out in the Preamble and the instruments devised for their realization. Prior to World War II, the spirits of both Jefferson and Madison can be said to ...
... critical faculties and actually assess the relationship between the great ends set out in the Preamble and the instruments devised for their realization. Prior to World War II, the spirits of both Jefferson and Madison can be said to ...
Страница 20
... critical examination, our Constitution, we are in the position of the battered wife who continues to profess the “essential goodness” of her abusive husband. To stick with the analogy for a moment, it may well be the case that the ...
... critical examination, our Constitution, we are in the position of the battered wife who continues to profess the “essential goodness” of her abusive husband. To stick with the analogy for a moment, it may well be the case that the ...
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25 | |
TooPowerful Presidents Chosen in an Indefensible Process Who Cannot Be Displaced Even When They Are Manifestly Incompetent | 79 |
An Idea Whose Time Has Passed | 123 |
5 The Constitution as Creator of SecondClass Citizens | 141 |
6 The Impermeable Article V | 159 |
What Is to Be Done? | 167 |
The Wisdom of Woodrow Wilson | 181 |
The Constitution of the United States | 183 |
AFTERWORD FOR THE PAPERBACK EDITION | 201 |
NOTES | 217 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 239 |
INDEX | 243 |
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