Showing papers on "Constitution published in 1975"

Wealth Neutrality and Local Choice in Public Education

Abstract: A series of recent judicial decisions has focused public attention on the issue of local choice in the provision of public education. In Serrano vs. Priest, Rodriguez vs. San Antonio (1971), and similar cases in other states, the lower courts confirmed that education is a responsibility of the state government and held that local expenditures on education may not be a function of the taxable wealth of the local community.1 Although the United States Supreme Court has overturned these decisions in the appeal of Rodriguez vs. San Antonio (1973), the pressure to change the current system remains strong. The Supreme Court majority indicated that its decision reflected the limits of the federal constitutional authority and was not an approval of the status quo in educational finance. Litigation is now likely to shift to challenging the current methods as unconstitutional under state constitutions which, unlike the federal constitution, do deal specifically with education.2 Moreover, fundamental changes in the financing of local education may not require further pressure from the courts; state legislatures may seek to neutralize the effects of local wealth differences even if the current systems are not held to be unconstitutional. These judicial decisions and the ensuing legislative proposals run counter to the general economic view of local government finance. The basic presumption of economic analysis is that, because local governments can select different levels of service and because individuals can choose their area of residence, decentralized finance by local governments allows the provision of public services to reflect the variety of individual preferences for public services.3 Although the level of local spending may be nonoptimal because of intercommunity externalities and because of the method of local budget determination, fiscal decentralization still remains the only alternative to the insuperable problem of determining the optimal level of expenditure on a public service provided by a central government. In effect, autonomous decentralized financing of education provides a quasi market in which households can exercise their diverse preferences by their location decisions. This paper considers the problem of * Professor of economics, Harvard University. I am grateful to Charles Clotfelter for assistance with the statistical analysis, to Stephen Weiss for providing unpublished data on school expenditures, and to the Ford Foundation and National Science Foundation for financial support. I have benefited from discussions of an earlier version in seminars at Harvard, M.I.T., and Berkeley, and from comments by Noel Edelson, Eric Toder, and David Stern. An earlier and more complete discussion of this study was distributed as Harvard Institute of Economic Research paper no. 293, May 1973 (revised July 1973). 1 In Serrano vs. Priest, the landmark case in this area, the plaintiff and the courts were very much influenced by the line of argument and suggested remedies develope(l in John Coons et al. For a further discussion of the legal precedents, see Arthur Wise. 2 Almost immediately after the United States Supreme Court decision in Rodriguez vs. San Antonio, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that the current system of local finance violated the New Jersey state constitution. See Wise for a summary of the provisions of other state constitutions. I Charles Tiebout presented a formal analysis of the full efficiency of local government provision of public services under quite special conditions. See Wallace Oates and James Buchanan and Charles Goetz for a further discussion of these issues.

The Religious Origins of the French Revolution: From Calvin to the Civil Constitution, 1560-1791

Abstract: Although the French Revolution is associated with efforts to dechristianize the French state and citizens, it actually had long-term religious-even Christian-origins, claims Dale Van Kley in this controversial new book. Looking back at the two and a half centuries that preceded the revolution, Van Kley explores the diverse, often warring religious strands that influenced political events up to the revolution. Van Kley draws on a wealth of primary sources to show that French royal absolutism was first a product and then a casualty of religious conflict. On the one hand, the religious civil wars of the sixteenth century between the Calvinist and Catholic internationals gave rise to Bourbon divine-right absolutism in the seventeenth century. On the other hand, Jansenist-related religious conflicts in the eighteenth century helped to "desacralize" the monarchy and along with it the French Catholic clergy, which was closely identified with Bourbon absolutism. The religious conflicts of the eighteenth century also made a more direct contribution to the revolution, for they left a legacy of protopolitical and ideological parties (such as the Patriot party, a successor to the Jansenist party), whose rhetoric affected the content of revolutionary as well as counterrevolutionary political culture. Even in its dechristianizing phase, says Van Kley, revolutionary political culture was considerably more indebted to varieties of French Catholicism than it realized.

The Morality of Consent

Abstract: "This short but provocative volume...is a fitting testimony to the author's extraordinary, though tragically brief, career as a constitutional scholar, lawyer and teacher. In just a hundred and a half literate pages, we are treated to vintage Bickel insight into every major political issue of the decade, from the civil rights movement, to the Warren Court, through the frenetic university upheavals, and-inevitably-to Watergate...A tapestry woven by a master of subtle color and texture."-Alan M. Dershowitz, New York Times Book Review "Presents the core of [Bickel's] legal and political philosophy...In the five essays that compose this volume Bickel explores the relationship between morality and law, examining the role of the Constitution and Supreme Court in our political process, the nature of citizenship, the First Amendment, civil disobedience, and the moral authority of the intellectual...All will be stimulated by Bickel's thoughtful message." -Perspective "[Bickel] wrote with astonishing clarity. It takes no legal training to understand his thinking about the law. Nor does it take a willingness to agree with him. All that's required of the reader of this important 'little' book is a concern that rivals Bickel's about the future of American society." -Newsweek "An illuminating, often a moving book, with all of Professor Bickel's rare ability to bring law to life in vivid words."-Anthony Lewis Alexander M. Bickel, Sterling Professor of Law at Yale Law School, taught at Yale from 1956 until his death in 1974.

1 Do We Have an Unwritten Constitution

Abstract: The most reiterated theme of the constitutional jurisprudence was the need for fidelity to the constitutional text in judicial review. The Constitution is a written document. The courts effectuate unwritten ideals and values covertly and proceed in a mode that is openly non-interpretive. It does not rely on constitutional text for the content of the substantive principles it is invoking. The demise of substantive due process must constitutionally free the federal government to engage in explicit racial discrimination. All the "fundamental interests" that trigger "strict scrutiny' under the equal protection clause would have to be discarded, if the interpretive model were to control constitutional adjudication. Modern applications of the provisions of the Bill of Rights based on the capacity to grow or develop with changing social values would have to be discarded. There was an original understanding, both implicit and textually expressed, that unwritten higher law principles had constitutional status.Keywords: Bill of Rights; Constitution; unwritten higher law principles

Aristotle and Xenophon on Democracy and Oligarchy

Abstract: This collection contains: Aristotle's "The Constitution of Athens"; Xenophon's "The Politeia of the Spartans"; "The Constitution of the Athenians" ascribed to Xenophon the Orator; and, "The Boeotian Constitution" from the Oxyrhynchus Historian. In bringing together, translating, and annotating these constitutional documents from ancient Greece thirty five years ago, J.M. Moore produced an authoritative work of the highest scholarship. There is an explanatory essay by classics scholar Kurt A. Raaflaub that expands this indispensable collection.

Constitution of the independent state of Papua New Guinea

Abstract: Adoption of Constitution. WE, THE PEOPLE OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA— • united in one nation • pay homage to the memory of our ancestors—the source of our strength and origin of our combined heritage • acknowledge the worthy customs and traditional wisdoms of our people—which have come down to us from generation to generation • pledge ourselves to guard and pass on to those who come after us our noble traditions and the Christian principles that are ours now. By authority of our inherent right as ancient, free and independent peoples

The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, as modified up to 25th January 1975

Abstract: PREAMBLE We, the people of Bangladesh, having proclaimed our Independence on the 26th day of March, 1971 and through a historic war for national independence, established the independent, sovereign People's Republic of Bangladesh; Pledging that the high ideals of absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah, nationalism, democracy and socialism meaning economic and social justice, which inspired our heroic people to dedicate themselves to, and our brave martyrs to sacrifice their lives in the war for national independence , shall be fundamental principles of the Constitution; Further pledging that it shall be a fundamental aim of the State to realise through the democratic process to socialist society, free from exploitation-a society in which the rule of law, fundamental human rights and freedom, equality and justice, political, economic and social, will be secured for all citizens; Affirming that it is our sacred duty to safeguard, protect and defend this Constitution and to maintain its supremacy as the embodiment of the will of the people of Bangladesh so that we may prosper in freedom and may make our full contribution towards international peace and cooperation in keeping with the progressive aspirations of mankind; In our Constituent Assembly, this eighteenth day of Kartick, 1379 B.S corresponding to the fourth day of November, 1972 A.D., do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution.

The Presidency of James Buchanan

Abstract: This book offers conclusions that are very different from most of the traditional historical interpretations of the Buchanan presidency. Historians have either condemned Buchanan for weakness and vacillation or portrayed him as a president dedicated to peace who did everything constitutionally possible to avoid war. Under the scrutiny of Elbert B. Smith, Buchanan emerges as a strong figure who made vital contributions not to peace but to the accelerating animosities that produced the war. "Historians who have considered the Civil War a necessary and justifiable price for the destruction of slavery should feel a debt to James Buchanan," Smith writes. "Those who think the war could and should have been avoided owe him nothing." Most of the accounts of the era have concentrated on the Dred Scott Case, Bleeding Kansas and the Lecompton Constitution, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, John Brown, the rise of the Republicans and the disintegration of the Democrats, the election of 1860, and the bitter quarrels over slavery extension occasioned by these events. Buchanan has often appeared on a stage occupied by more important actors. Whether or not the war was already inevitable by March, 1857, cannot be proved. That a subsequent series of emotion-packed events filled both North and South with rage and fear, triggering secession and the war, is undebatable. It is Smith's theory that Buchanan, in leading the United States through these fateful years, added much to the war spirit that developed in both sections. Driven by affection and sympathy for the Southerners, he tried to satisfy their demands for slavery rights in the territories. This aroused bitter anti-South feelings throughout the North, which foiled his efforts and further convinced the Southerners that they could no longer have their way inside the Union. The one event that finally triggered the Southern secession was the election of a Republican president, and Buchanan's agreement with the Southern demands and his personal hatred for Stephen A. Douglas did much to accomplish this. Covering the most controversial period in American history, Smith presents important new evaluations for the consideration of students of both the Civil War and the presidency.

Suspension and Expulsion of Black Students From the Public Schools: Academic Capital Punishment and the Constitution

Abstract: The relationship between law and mathematics has been described as a romance" which "has been for the most part a one-sided affair. ' Mathematicians historically have toyed with the idea of bringing their discipline to bear on social problems and their resolution, but lawyers and judges have proved to be a recalcitrant lot. Many lawyers apparently chose law school to escape those mysteries of all mysteries, mathematics and science. But, alas, our escape has proven to be an illusion. At every turn we are besieged with preference contours, choice sets, random samples, and statistical probabilities. 2 While many of us remain xenophobic to the core, greeting with hostility each new incursion into the world of "plausibility," "commonsense" and "humanistic" thought,3 frankness commands the admission that the affair has become serious. The one-sided romance has developed into a marriage of convenience, or, reflecting more recent conjugal innovations, a willingness to share the same quarters without the formalities of ceremony and family reception. 4 Nowhere has the impact of this new relationship been more severely felt than with respect to the developing law of racial discrimination. It

Public Personnel Administration and the Constitution: An Emergent Approach

Abstract: D uring the past decade the courts have almost completely transformed the nature of the constitutional position of public employees in the United States. This transformation has largely resulted in an expansion of the constitutional rights and protections afforded public employees in their relationship with government in its role as employer. In the early stages of change, judicial decisions tended to destroy prevailing doctrines without replacing them with much more than a demand that the balance between the rights of public employees and public employers be redressed. It is now possible, however, to identify a consistent line of judicial reasoning that has been emerging and to assess, in a preliminary way, its importance for public personnel administration.

Infusion of the Common Law into the Legal System of Israel

Abstract: At the end of the Ottoman rule the legal system in Israel was ripe for change. The British conquest was welcomed, at least by the Jewish population, and under the circumstances there was no objection to absorbing the legal system of the new conqueror.British conquest in 1917 brought military rule but by 1920 a civil administration headed by High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel had already been installed. On July 24, 1922 the League of Nations bestowed upon Britain the Mandate over Palestine, and less than a month thereafter, on August 10, 1922, the Palestine Order-in-Council was enacted. This legislation was designed to serve as a “Constitution” for Mandatory Palestine. It established institutions of the Government—the executive authority, the legislative branch, the judiciary—and defined their powers. In particular, the sources of law to be applied by the civil courts were enumerated in Art. 46, while matters of personal status jurisdiction remained vested in the courts of the various religious communities.

Law and Rural Development in Ethiopia

Abstract: The attention of the world was focused on Ethiopia, briefly, when Emperor Haile Selassie I, once considered the inviolate descendant of Solomon and Sheba and the Elect of God, was deposed on September 12, 1974, and when, on November 23, 1974, sixty public and military officials were executed without trial. The Provisional Military Administrative Council, or Dirg , formally assumed power under Proclamation No. 1 of 1974 ( Neg. Gaz. 34/1) which deposed the Emperor and “suspended” the 1955 Revised Constitution, while providing that all other laws and regulations remain in force. De facto, of course, the entire legal system remains in suspense and the emerging Grundnorm or basic postulate of Ethiopian public law has become the as yet vague philosophy of Ethiopia Tikdem , defined as encompassing the tenets of Ethiopian socialism. Although the “revolutionary” movement was undertaken in the name of the peasants, events and legal changes have, to date, affected only the urban areas, and the Dirg's promise to pursue rural development and land reform ( Ethiopian Herald , 1974: 4) has remained a mere promise. Will the interests of rural Ethiopians be pursued by the new regime in the future? What role will law play in this process? These problems will be resolved as a result of future political choices, and Ethiopia is at a stage in her history when difficult choices must be made in many areas. It is therefore an appropriate time to assess where the Ethiopian legal system has been and where it could go from the standpoint of improving the quality of the life of Ethiopia's subsistence peasants, who constitute eighty percent of the population.

Afghanistan under Daud: Relations with Neighboring States

Abstract: THE JULY 1973 coup d'etat in Afghanistan has neither eroded the country's traditional neutralism nor brought about any drastic change in its economic system. The fears of a tilt towards the Soviet Union and of sweeping socialist reforms have proved unfounded. The shadowy central committee which assumed power after deposing King Zahir Shah remains as shadowy as ever, while Mohammad Daud, President and Prime Minister, runs the country in much the same authoritarian style as when he was the King's Prime Minister between 1953 and 1963. On the face of it, one should say plus ga change, plus c'est la meme chose. The explanation for the continuity in policies lies in the character of the coup. It took place at a time when the economy was in very bad shape after two years of severe drought. The high price of food led to serious distress in urban areas, while tribal peoples in rural areas were forced to slaughter a sizeable proportion of their livestock for lack of feed. International agencies concerned with Afghanistan's planning were beginning to write off the whole development effort since the mid-1950s as "a costly failure." Although a new constitution had been promulgated by the King in 1964 to make the cabinet answerable to a popularly-elected House of the People (Wolesi Jirgah), he had stopped short of allowing the formation of political parties. There were informal and sub rosa groupings, although none of any consequence outside Kabul. The political power in the country remained as before a monopoly of traditional leaders who derived their influence either irom their wealth, their customary status within a tribe, or their positions in the religious hierarchy. A few with high technical or professional qualifications were accommodated in high offices even though they belonged to none of these categories, but this was only to be expected in a country very short of talent. Political stability rested thus on the equation established by the King with the traditional leadership through such instrumentalities as the cabinet and parliament. The ultimate sanction for his authority was his

Abortion and the Constitution: the need for a life-protective amendment.

Abstract: As a result of the recent congressional hearings held on proposed constitutional amendments designed to overturn the rulings of the United States Supreme Court concerning abortion, the abortion controversy has once again become a major topic of public interest. The author seeks to identify the two distinct areas of debate involved in the issue and to discuss, in particular, the central topic raised by many of the proposals-the rights of the unborn. It is a misfortune if a judge reads his conscious or unconscious sympathy with one side or the other prematurely into the law and forgets that what seem to him to be first principles are believed by half of his fellow men to be wrong . . .1 Abortion, the right to privacy, the right to life-these topics have been in the public eye since the decisions of the United States Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade2 and Doe v. Bolton.3 These decisions have not settled the abortion controversy: it continues in Congress, 4 in the courts,5 and in the media. 6 The subject matter is complex and may be debated at many levels. However, without a focus or common ground of discussion, efforts toward resolution inexorably lead to more debate, more confusion, and ultimately, frustration and anger for the parties involved.7

Thomas Jefferson and the Beginning of Cherokee Nationalism, 1806 to 1809

Abstract: o many Georgians and other worried southern frontiersmen the thirteen thousand Cherokee people on their borders appeared by i827 to have established an imperium in imperio of such internal strength and stability as to pose a threat that could be countered only by their forced removal. While ethnohistorians disagree about the nature and extent of nationalism, acculturation, and deculturation among the various Indian tribes of North America, they generally concur that in the early nineteenth century the Cherokees achieved the closest approximation to nationhood of any tribe east of the Mississippi.' One of the largest and wealthiest tribes, they adopted a written constitution in i827 (modeled closely upon the United States Constitution), published a national newspaper in their own language (utilizing the unique Sequoyan syllabary), and developed such a sophisticated legislative, judicial, and educational system that their social order was more advanced than that of many of the rude white settlements around them. Many Americans in the North, particularly in New England, thought the Cherokees deserved serious consideration as a potential Indian state within the Union. Most accounts date the beginning of Cherokee nationhood from i8i7 when a law of the council established "a republic" with a "national bicameral legislature."2 But in important respects the impulse toward