Constitution

About: Constitution is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 37828 publications have been published within this topic receiving 435603 citations.

Strangers to the Constitution: Immigrants, Borders, and Fundamental Law

Abstract: Gerald Neuman discusses in historical and contemporary terms the repeated efforts of U.S. insiders to claim the Constitution as their exclusive property and to deny con-stitutional rights to aliens and immigrants - and even citizens if they are outside the nation's borders. Tracing such efforts from the debates over the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 to present-day controversies about illegal aliens and their children, the author argues that no human being subject to the governance of the United States should be a "stranger to the Constitution". Thus, whenever the government asserts its power to impose obligations on individuals, it brings them within the constitutional system and should afford them constitutional rights. In Neuman's view, this mutuality of obligation is the most persuasive approach to extending constitutional rights extraterritorially to all U.S. citizens and to those aliens on whom the United States seeks to impose legal responsibilities. Examining both mutuality and more flexible theories, Neuman defends some constitutional con-straints on immigration and deportation policies and argues that the political rights of aliens need not exclude suffrage. Finally, in regard to whether children born in the United States to illegally present alien parents should be U.S. citizens, he concludes that the Constitution's traditional shield against the emergence of a hereditary caste of "illegals" should be vigilantly preserved.

Pachakutik: Indigenous Movements and Electoral Politics in Ecuador

Abstract: Chapter 1: The Politicization of Indigenous Identities Chapter 2: Uprisings Chapter 3: The Emergence of an Electoral Option Chapter 4: The Last Coup of the Twentieth Century Chapter 5: Indians in Power Chapter 6: A Citizens' Revolution Chapter 7: Rewriting the Constitution ... Again Chapter 8: 2009 Elections Chapter 9: Social Movements and Electoral Politics Bibliography

Same players, different game: how better rules make better politics

Abstract: In this essay, I summarize a whole area of inquiry associated with constitutional political economy. I first try to outline the elements of political structure, the political rules that clearly influence the outcomes of the process. I look, briefly, at a range of specific structures that, taken together, will shape the constitution of any organized democratic polity. This constitution will, in its turn, influence the pattern of collective outcomes that may be observed. I argue that the disparate success of differing political communities in achieving objectives that seem to be commonly shared may be primarily due to the mix of elements in the basic structure of rules, and not to the differences as among the political players.

Beyond Confederation: Origins of the Constitution and American National Identity

Abstract: Beyond Confederation scrutinizes the ideological background of the U.S. Constitution, the rigors of its writing and ratification, and the problems it both faced and provoked immediately after ratification. The essays in this collection question much of the heritage of eighteenth-century constitutional thought and suggest that many of the commonly debated issues have led us away from the truly germane questions. The authors challenge many of the traditional generalizations and the terms and scope of that debate as well. The contributors raise fresh questions about the Constitution as it enters its third century. What happened in Philadelphia in 1787, and what happened in the state ratifying conventions? Why did the states--barely--ratify the Constitution? What were Americans of the 1789s attempting to achieve? The exploratory conclusions point strongly to an alternative constitutional tradition, some of it unwritten, much of it rooted in state constitutional law; a tradition that not only has redefined the nature and role of the Constitution but also has placed limitations on its efficacy throughout American history. The authors are Lance Banning, Richard Beeman, Stephen Botein, Richard D. Brown, Richard E. Ellis, Paul Finkelman, Stanley N. Katz, Ralph Lerner, Drew R. McCoy, John M. Murrin, Jack N. Rakove, Janet A. Riesman, and Gordon S. Wood.

The Challenge of a Critical Gerontology : The Problem of Social Constitution

Abstract: Abstract This article focuses on the problem of social constitution which is seen as the principal theoretical challenge that is implicit in the different approaches to “critical gerontology. ” The acknowledgment of a social constitution of both gerontology and aging contrasts with the conventional understanding of gerontology, which is dominated by an idealized concept of natural science as the representative of “objective” knowledge. In an analysis of recent developments in the philosophy, sociology and history of science it is shown that the problem of social constitution can no longer be avoided in theoretical reflection on gerontology. The theoretical and practical relevance of this problem is illustrated at different levels of analysis. These levels correspond partly with the different traditions that inspire the approaches to “critical gerontology.”