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How Democratic is the American Constitution? (Castle Lectures in Ethics, Politics, & Economics)
 
 
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How Democratic is the American Constitution? (Castle Lectures in Ethics, Politics, & Economics) (Hardcover)

by R Dahl (Author) "MY AIM IN THIS BRIEF BOOK IS NOT TO PROPOSE changes in the American Constitution but to suggest changes in the way we think about..." (more)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Yale University Press; 2nd edition (19 Mar 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0300092180
  • ISBN-13: 978-0300092189
  • Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.5 x 2.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 980,863 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
"This book is vintage Dahl at the highest possible level. It is lucid, acutely analytic, literate, and both consistent with the long series of previous books by Dahl and new in its details and broad contours." Fred Greenstein, Princeton University

Product Description
In this provocative work, an American political scientist poses the question, "Why should we uphold our constitution?". The vast majority of Americans venerate the American Constitution and the principles it embodies, but many also worry that the United States has fallen behind other nations on crucial democratic issues, including economic equality, racial integration and women's rights. Robert Dahl explores the vital tension between the Americans' belief in the legitimacy of their constitution and their belief in the principles of democracy. Dahl starts with the assumption that the legitimacy of the American Constitution derives solely from its utility as an instrument of democratic governance. Dahl demonstrates that, due to the context in which it was conceived, the constitution came to incorporate significant antidemocratic elements. Because the Framers of the Constitution had no relevant example of a democratic political system on which to model the American government, many defining aspects of the political system were implemented as a result of short-sightedness or last-minute compromise. Dahl highlights those elements of the American system that are most unusual and potentially antidemocratic: the federal system, the bicameral legislature, judicial review, presidentialism, and the electoral college system. The political system that emerged from the world's first great democratic experiment is unique - no other well-established democracy has copied it. How does the American constitutional system function in comparison to other democratic systems? How could the political system be altered to achieve more democratic ends? To what extent did the Framers of the Constitution build features into the political system that militate against significant democratic reform? Refusing to accept the status of the American Constitution as a sacred text, Dahl challenges America to think critically about the origins of its political system and to consider the opportunities for creating a more democratic society.

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First Sentence
MY AIM IN THIS BRIEF BOOK IS NOT TO PROPOSE changes in the American Constitution but to suggest changes in the way we think about our constitution. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A considered view., 3 Sep 2004
By A. Parsons (Helsinki, Finland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: How Democratic is the American Constitution? (Yale Nota Bene) (Paperback)
This book starts by placing the American constitution in its historical and social context. By using contemporary documents the author determines what the drafters of the constitution were trying to achieve, which was essentially a massive compromise. What they were producing was never intended to be a democratic set of rules, quite the converse. The idea that the country should be a democracy very quickly gained ground, but the damage to true democracy had already been done by the enormous compromises made in the constitution, for example slavery, states having the decision as to how to elect representatives, unequal representation in the senate, a president who is both head of state and the leader of the government and who is elected not by a popular vote but by an unrepresentative electoral college. The author eloquently explains that there was no model for a democratic republic at the time so the framers were feeling their way in the dark. There also seems to have been an inordinate amount of discord as to what a republic actually is. Certainly our modern day concept that a republic is the opposite of a monarchy doesn't seem to have been the accepted rule then. So the constitution is in many ways an anachronism, attempting to achieve goals which long ago became obsolete (in some cases within a few years of the drafting of the constitution) while damaging democracy in the modern world. To view the constitution as a masterpiece of political insight made by a group of matchless wonder kind is a gross misrepresentation of the facts, as well as historically inaccurate. So how has the constitution served? The answer can only be poorly. People who value freedom and democracy as much as Americans do deserve something better surely? Many alternatives, drawn from various constitutions, are debated here. The solution seems to be, as ever, proportional representation. However you view it PR produces good government which is also truly representative and therefore truly democratic.
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