Portal:Liberty and Constitution

Liberty and Constitution

America became a federal republic in 1789 when the Constitution was ratified. Most Americans grew up being taught that America is a 'democracy'. "Majority rules" was the authority we turned to on the playground. America is democratic - a good thing. Government needs the input of the people and to the extent that it turns away from that it becomes autocratic. But whether or not we are or should be first and foremost a democracy bears discussion. CW prefers to think of the US as a constitutional republic that enjoys a high degree of political and economic freedom. A rather startling realization is that a society can have liberty without a formal democratic process. In England it was 200 years after Magna Carta that a right to vote for members of Parliament became law, and then it was a very limited electoral franchise of well propertied males. It was another 500 years before the enfranchisement of males over 21 and the partial enfranchisement of women over 30. But the slow development of formal democratic input did not impede the recognition of fundamental rights and the development of personal liberty. Those proceeded and became protected by Constitution with never a thought given to holding an election. In addition to Magna Carta and its several revisions was the 1628 Petition of Right and the 1689 Bill of Rights. The democratic process was more general in America than in England in 1689 (citation needed). In 1215, the year of Magna Carta, there was no sense of 'the people' or a voting process. Magna Carta established rule of law and democracy was nowhere in sight. Such developments have done more to establish personal liberty than any election. Rule of law can exist without democracy. Democracy without rule of law becomes tyranny. We clearly see, as this is being written in November 2014, that a majority established by democratic election can suddenly change. When that happens, can fundamental rights of the new minority (the former majority) be taken from them by the new majority? If the answer is yes, then rule of law is absent. The US is a constitutional, federal republic governed by officials that are democratically elected. America was not the first constitutional republic, but it was quite new in important ways. Like England it emphasized rule of law. To this it added sovereignty of its constituent states and a very careful separation of federal powers between the several branches of government. The Americans of the time drew on examples that came before and on a variety of liberal thought that had existed in Europe (going back to Aristotle) and in America. It drew heavily on the English examples of constitutional monarchy, the English Constitution, and Common Law and added the lessons of the colonial American experience. America was in a unique position - having an unusual collection of very agile intellects (Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Jay, Madison, Otis, Paine, Washington and others), a history of previous examples to inform them, the recent history of events in America and England, and a blank (well, almost blank) page to write on. Perfection can't be achieved in such a complex endeavor involving so many interests, but it was the most perfect such union ever created - by whatever measure you wish to pick. Articles for this category This portal is the place to assign articles discussing the transition from independence to having a ratified constitution. It is also the place to discuss attributes of our constitutional republic. Therefore, articles about our Constitution belong here. Articles about the 'rule of law' belong here. There is some overlap between this and other categories, such as American Independence. Articles about the time period from 1763, when England turned its attention to America in unwelcome ways, and through the winning of independence, belong in the category of American Independence. Articles about the transition from the Articles of Confederation to a ratified Constitution of the United States should be assigned to this category. For example: articles about such items as the Federalist Papers (and Anti-Federalist Papers) belong here. What makes the subjects of this category worth writing about is that America has been so successful for so long - due in large part to the work of those who wrote and ratified our Constitution. In today's environment of deep political divisions, it may help to remind ourselves of our beginnings and the problems and issues that our founders struggled with. They were not entirely different than the problems and issues we deal with today.

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TBD TBD 1 TBD 2 Articles Bcat1.Notes for 'Rule of Law' The Founders and their Purpose