We the People, Volume 1, Foundations (Paperback)

~ Bruce Ackerman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

From distinguished legal scholar Ackerman (Law & Political Science/Yale; Reconstructing American Law, 1984, etc.)--an original and insightful study of the theoretical and historical evolution of the Constitution, and its meaning in modern times. Ackerman creates analytical categories that define both America's distinctive constitutional system and its transformative constitutional experiences. He says that while the American democratic system borrowed much from European theory, Americans have created a novel constitutional system that, unlike the British or German models, distinguishes between two types of politics. In ``normal politics,'' a politically disengaged populace permits interest groups to lobby democratically elected representatives while the representatives make policy, and in ``constitutional politics,'' society mobilizes to debate matters of fundamental principle. Ackerman sees three great transformative movements of constitutional politics--the establishment of the basic framework in the 1780's, the reforms of the Reconstruction Republicans in the 1860's, and those of the New Deal Democrats in the 1930's (who effected their sweeping reinterpretation of the Constitution by means of seminal Supreme Court decisions rather than by Constitutional amendments). Each of these movements, the author says, was characterized by legal creativity bordering on illegality (the framing of the Constitution did not use the amendment process of the then-regnant Articles of Confederation, and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments did not use the amendment process of Article Five of the Constitution), but, Ackerman argues, each was an authentic response to political crises of its time and was ultimately legitimized by the people. While Ackerman admires the Constitution, he is not blind to its faults or to its historical and imperfect compromises. However, he calls on private American citizens--those whose concern with government competes with other personal concerns--to work for the fulfillment of its egalitarian promises. A thoughtful, informative, and inspiring introduction to our national bedrock. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

We the People can be recommended to anyone seeking a readable and complete introduction to the state of current Constitutional thought. Its analysis of the constraints on past and present judges and legal theorists, and the weaknesses in a panoply of jurisprudential positions is lucid and elegant.
--Stephen Presser (Chicago Tribune )

This book is one of the most imporant contributions to American constitutional thought in the last half-century
--Cass R. Sunstein (New Republic )

[We the People] cuts through the futile and absurd search for the 'original intent of the founders' as the way to discover the will of the people. It recognizes that the great and extraordinary occasions required for action by the people have not been confined to a single instance in the eighteenth century. It deflates the pretensions of politicians in normal politics but magnifies the importance of political leadership in mobilizing popular support for constitutional politics when constitutional politics is needed. It gives pragmatic meaning to government of, by, and for the elusive, invisible, inaudible, but sovereign people.
--Edmund S. Morgan (New York Review of Books )

One of the most distinguished works on the american constitution since world war II. It combines law, political theory, political science, and even a lil economics with a rare attention to history; and it does so while developing and extremely innovative and original argument, one that has a soild claim to acceptance...There is no doubt that the book will be highly influential. I think that it will significantly alter the way that people think and talk about the American Constitution...The book is extremely well-written. Indeed, it successfully carries out the most unusual task of making difficult matters accessible to an extremely wide audience...This is a truly distinguished contribution to constitutional thought, one that will reorient the field in major ways
--Cass R. Sustein, Law School, University of Chicago

The most imporant project now underway in the entire field of constitutional theory...the three volumes that will eventually comprise Ackerman's contribution theory to be published in this decade, but, indeed, perphaps in the past half-century...Ackerman posits a complex process of "Publian politics" where We The People become authorized to change the constitution without ever invoking the procedures laid out in Article V...We the people can also lay claim to being the most significant work in "constructive" American political thought since Louis Hartz's The Liberal Tradition in America published some 35 years ago. For Ackerman is reopening the question about" American exceptionalism" and arguing, with extraordinary vigor, that American political development is indeed imporantly different from European and other models
--Sanford Levinson, School of Law, University of Texas at Austin

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (March 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674948416
• ISBN-13: 978-0674948419
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #559,762 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Historical Constitutional Analysis, December 18, 1999

By	Christopher John Brennan (Washington, DC (suburbs)) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ackerman describes historically how we arrived at our current Constitutional jurisprudence. He compares the original Constitution with the changes arising out of Reconstruction and then out of the New Deal--emphasizing that those changes cannot be adequately described within the formal Article V ammendment process. We might wish history had gone otherwise--I know I often do--but he gives a framework to at least understand it.

This book is a major step forward in recogizing that the fundemental structures of American Constitutional law require both sound analytical models as well as rich historical context.

This is one of the handful of most thought-provoking and persuasive books I have read on the Constitutional process.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most significant constitutional work in 25 years, January 17, 2005

By	R. Price "caesar_42" (Liverpool, New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This seminal piece of constitutional theory represents more than a decade of thought and consideration; it is Ackerman's opus that substantial reinterprets the traditional understanding of constitutional history. Ackerman begins by developing the concept of the Dualist Constitution. Unlike the British parliamentary system, we do not give plenary lawmaking authority to the victors of a normal election. Instead we recognize a two track system with the victors of normal elections given the political power, but not the authority to change the basic constitutional structure. To gain the power to alter the Constitution, a movement for constitutional change requires the sustained support of We The People.

Of course, this idea flies in the face of the traditional claim that the only valid means of changing the Constitution is through Article V. Ackerman claims that the two most important periods of constitutional reorientation occurred outside of the strictures of Article V by utilizing unconventional modes of ratifying popular change (see Volume 2, Transformations, for this). Ackerman argues that there were three periods of massive constitutional change: the Founding, Reconstruction, and the New Deal. Now I have historical criticisms with some of this, which is dealt with in my review of Transformations, but overall Ackerman's argument is persuasive.

After making his historical argument, Ackerman lays out a role for the Supreme Court that refutes the monist claim that Court power violates democratic principles. Ackerman argues that the Court has a preservationist role to play: that it maintains the principles established by the People against attack by politicians in normal eras.

Ackerman's book is brilliant, but one must remember that this volume is only the initial overview. It doesn't seek to explain every piece of the theory in thorough detail; that is the job for the other volumes. I would recommend that anyone reading this volume should hold off making judgments until after reading Transformations.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Overview of Constitutional Development, October 30, 1998

By A Customer

I bought Mr. Ackerman's Transformations part II to learn about the constitutional changes brought on by reconstruction. I learned so much about the constitution in this book that I went back to volume I. This is a MUST for anyone who desires to understand the nature of our government under the constitution.