ABSTRACT

Constitutional reform is a topic of perennial academic debate, perhaps now more than ever amid sharp polarization in the electorate and government. At once a cogent, new contribution to the scholarly literature and appropriate for American politics and government students, this book mounts a provocative, nonideological defense of the US Constitution, directly engaging proposals for reform and providing a rare systematic argument for continuity: Our politics may be broken but our system is not. Writing from an international perspective with an array of fascinating data, the author draws on theory, law, and history to defend the republican order under political stress and intellectual challenge.

chapter |18 pages

Introduction

Why the Constitution Needs Defending Today

chapter 1|26 pages

Constitutional Critiques

The Reemergence of Jeffersonian Constitutional Angst

chapter 2|34 pages

The Preamble, Then and Now

A More Perfect Union

chapter 3|52 pages

Governing Institutions

chapter 4|30 pages

Amendments and Interpretations