ABSTRACT
This chapter sets up an encounter between radical thinking and progressive constitutionalism. Any discussion of welfare rights would have to lead back to a vision of the constitution rooted in a popular and principled political culture that recognised poor people as citizens. A structural adjustment takes place "when join in actions which alter the previous constitutional understanding it is appropriate to view what has occurred as effectively being an amendment to the Constitution". In the early 1990s the problematic of progressive constitutional scholarship shifted. It was as if, in response to the ascendancy of the right, liberal scholars were forced to significantly redefine their position. Agonistic American politics requires the fundamental principles of the rule of law to protect one group of people from abuse by another. Democracy is understood as "a doctrine of social structure and political process meant to bring public opinion to bear on the decisions of rulers".
