Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (And How We the People Can Correct It) (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: life tenure, new constitutional convention, United States, Electoral College, Supreme Court (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Levinson's critical discussion of the founding document is bold, bracingly unromantic, and filled with illuminating insights. He accomplishes an unlikely feat, which is to make a really serious argument for a new constitutional convention, one that is founded squarely on democratic ideals. Levinson has valuably shown that parts of America's founding document are seriously flawed, and he has demonstrated that both representatives and citizens should treat the document not with "sanctimonious reverence" but as the revisable product of fallible human beings."--Cass R. Sunstein, The New Republic
"Admirably gutsy and unfashionable."--Michael Kinsley, The New York Times Book Review
"Levinson locates the flaws of the system in America's founding document itself--the Constitution. His book is compelling because of [his] breadth of erudition and his willingness to propose solutions to the flaws he perceives."--John O. McGinnis, The Wall Street Journal, Northwestern University School of Law
"Everyone who cares about how our government works should read this thoughtful book."--Washington Lawyer
"Sanford Levinson's irreverent tour reveals the subtle and not-so-subtle ways our Constitution blocks the responsible practice of democratic government. We ignore his critique at our peril."--Bruce Ackerman, Yale Law School
"Sanford Levinson is the most imaginative, innovative and provocative constitutional scholar of our time. His new, sharp critique of the Constitution makes for bracing reading and forces us to confront what we really think of the Constitution. Every American needs to read this book and see if he or she agrees with Levinson that it is necessary to abandon the Framer's work and adopt a fundamentally new system of government. This work cannot be ignored."--Walter Dellinger, O'Melveny & Myers, Former Acting Solicitor General of the United States
"In an ideal world, every citizen would read this book and ponder the profound issues it raises about how to achieve democracy in our republic. As Socratic in spirit, as it is engaging in style, this is a marvelous guide to the pros and cons of democratic reform. Take up its invitation to look freshly at institutions you have taken for granted."--James Fishkin, Stanford University
"Few scholars are in the same league with Professor Sanford Levinson when it comes to raising provocative questions about the Constitution and conventional modes of interpreting its provisions. Whether one agrees or disagrees with his analyses and prescriptions is largely beside the point; what matters is that he forces readers to think about dimensions of constitutional questions that ordinarily go unnoticed. In Our Undemocratic Constitution, Professor Levinson is at his thought-provoking best."--Robert P. George, Princeton University
"A lucidly written and compelling work, Our Undemocratic Constitution asks hard questions about the nature of our founding document. Levinson, who is one of the nation's leading constitutional scholars, argues here that much about the Constitution stands in need of dramatic change. This is a timely and important book, and our country would benefit if its ideas provoked real debate."--Elena Kagan, Dean, Harvard Law School

Product Description

The Constitution is one of the most revered documents in American politics. Yet this is a document that regularly places in the White House candidates who did not in fact get a majority of the popular vote. It gives Wyoming the same number of votes as California, which has seventy times the population of the Cowboy State. And it offers the President the power to overrule both houses of Congress on legislation he disagrees with on political grounds. Is this a recipe for a republic that reflects the needs and wants of today's Americans?

Taking a hard look at our much-venerated Constitution, Sanford Levinson here argues that too many of its provisions promote either unjust or ineffective government. Under the existing blueprint, we can neither rid ourselves of incompetent presidents nor assure continuity of government following catastrophic attacks. Less important, perhaps, but certainly problematic, is the appointment of Supreme Court judges for life. Adding insult to injury, the United States Constitution is the most difficult to amend or update of any constitution currently existing in the world today.

Democratic debate leaves few stones unturned, but we tend to take our basic constitutional structures for granted. Levinson boldly challenges the American people to undertake a long overdue public discussion on how they might best reform this most hallowed document and construct a constitution adequate to our democratic values.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195307518
• ISBN-13: 978-0195307511
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #78,872 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forever Unfinished, January 6, 2007

By	Douglas Doepke (Claremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

For better or worse (I think, worse), our educational system tends to paint a semi-religious portrait of the Founding Fathers and their most hallowed offspring-- the Constitution. Questioning the wisdom or perfection of either, I'm afraid, strikes too many Americans as unpatriotic, at best, and treasonous, at worst. For proof, take a look at reviewer Horton's thoroughly ignorant version of this mind-set. It's ironic that those who would honor the nation's ideals by turning our Constitution into Holy Writ, at the same time, do the most to dishonor its democratic spirit.

Levinson's brief text (180 pages, excluding the helpful appendicies), goes beyond the popular depiction to point up those provisions among the six Articles and twenty-seven Amendments whose democratic pedigree are in serious doubt. The Electoral College is probably the best known and most egregious of these. Others, perhaps less glaring, but no less questionable, include distribution of the Senate, life tenure for Supreme Court justices, excessive presidential power, and a half-dozen other dubious provisions. You may agree with some, disagree with others, but all merit second thoughts in light of decades of practical experience.

It's important to point out that Levinson does not take up the hornet's nest topic of Constitutional interpretation. There is no discussion of whether Constitutional provisions establish a Right of Privacy or a Right to Equal Access, or other questions of interpretation that tend to rile partisan emotion. Instead, the focus remains exclusively on those structural aspects requiring no judicial review, as, for example, the clear provision limiting Senatorial representation to two per-state. So readers looking for ammunition for-or-against abortion or in behalf of affirmative action, for example, should look elsewhere. In fact, Levinson's concern goes beyond interpretation to elements of the bedrock itself. (He does, however, flirt with aspects of interpretation concerning the matter of presidential powers.)

The book's tone remains soberly analytical throughout, adopting a middle course between dry detachment, on one hand, and partisan emotion, on the other. And while I think that's the proper course for making his case, it's hardly the type of rhetoric geared to arouse the public into the remedial action that remains a secondary aim of the work-- and may also account for the rather skimpy response on this particular website. Nonetheless, the work serves to remind those who will listen, that, despite much well-meaning veneration, the Constitution remains forever an unfinished document.

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Where is the First Chapter?, April 18, 2007

By	P. Schonauer (Santa Barbara, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

According to Levinson "The Constitution is both insufficiently democratic, [...] and significantly dysfunctional" and therefore "we should not longer express our blind devotion to it". Levinson wants the reader to join him in a call for a new constitutional convention, and "Our Undemocratic Constitution" is the argument for that cause. Each reader must decide if Levinson succeeds.

Levinson takes the reader through the many shortcomings, pitfalls, and inadequacies of our federal Constitution. Regardless of opinion "Our Undemocratic Constitution is wanting, the first of which is a First Chapter.

Levinson presents the United States as "a country that professes to believe in democracy." Unfortunately, Levinson never presents the reader with his clear idea of democracy let along explain why it is better than what the United States is - a Constitution Republic, or a "constraint" democracy (professions notwithstanding). It has been over 150 years since the use of the phrase, "The United states ARE..." and even more years since a person called himself or herself a "Virginian" or "Carolinian". Presidential power and federalism has grown dramatically, but can we so easily say that we are now one big country and no longer a collection of "states"? Perhaps we can, but not without explanation. Unfortunately, Levison provides no explanation of his democracy and why it is superior and begins his book with the assumed premise that Federalism and a more direct democracy (?) is implicitly better.

The Journey takes the reader through unequal representation, bicameralism, the Electoral College, the tenure of federal judges, and the process required to amend the Constitution. During that journey the reader will meet some Straw men. The potential of a "Constitutional dictatorship" as a result of a "lame duck presidency" WAS an issue before 1933, before the 20th amendment to the Constitution. The inability to remove "disabled president" is noteworthy before 1967 and before the ratification of the 25th amendment, but not today. Levison freely admits this to be the case, yet still presents these as argument to throw out the baby because the bathwater WAS dirty 40 years ago.

The journey is filled with many, perhaps too many, assumed premise, "I suspect that most person are unconvinced..." pg 65, "one could easily read..." pg 71 "If one reads...which is certainly the most plausible reading, then it could well be..."pg 72 "It should be obvious that..." pg 87. "Easily read", "most plausible", "obvious that? Perhaps...but not without more.

Our Undemocratic Constitution does a fine job of shining the light on many aspects of our Constitution that are wanting. Levinson writes for the layman. It is because of this that Levinson should be more cautious and provide the reader with a first Chapter and more than the 180pg that are presented.

Levinson fails to address the many counter arguments to his position that exist both today and in 1787. He also fails to sufficiently differentiate between dirty bathwater and a dirty baby. Our Undemocratic Constitution addresses the dysfunctional of our current constitution without discussing what a future constitution and the process of getting there might look like. This is a deliberate choice by Levinson, but by doing so Levinson avoids the hardest task of all, addressing the arduous task of getting 300,000,000 people from 50 states to agree. Perhaps the words of Benjamin Franklin, following the singing of the "current" Constitution, provides a critical question for a reader:

"I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution: For when you assemble a Number of men to have the Advantage of their joint Wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their Prejudices, their Passions, their Errors of Opinion, their local Interests, and their selfish Views..." September, 17th, 1787

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Written In The Spirit of Thomas Jefferson, November 4, 2006

By	Brian Mulconrey - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Great book! I just devoured it in a few hours. Levinson reminds us that at the age of 73, Thomas Jefferson noted that "some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and treat them like the Ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment." Jefferson also suggested that we should "think about" revising the constitution about every 19 years to coincide with the arrival of a new generation.

After reading this book I had a palpable sense that our Founding Fathers would be disappointed in our stewardship of their remarkable work. Instead of worshipping the Constitution, we're responsible for maintaining it - during their lifetimes they actively amended the Constitution but they can't do that anymore.

Today, as we ask Supreme Court justices to extract 21st century meaning from 18th century passages, it helps to have courageous visionaries like Sanford Levinson remind us that "We" are still "the People."