Imperfect Union

How Errors of Omission Threaten Constitutional Democracy

Lawrence Goldstone

• Publisher: Academica Press
• Year: 2024
• ISBN:
  9781680538441
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In this new and original study of the origins of the United States Constitution, award winning scholar Lawrence Goldstone demonstrates that what was left out of the document by the Framers is of equal importance to what was included. Because of the deep divisions present in the United States at the beginning of the Republic, delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 were unwilling, and often unable, to forge a plan for government that would be both comprehensive and sufficiently acceptable to competing interests to achieve ratification. Rather than risk rejection, they chose to leave many key areas of governance vague or undefined, hoping the flaws could be dealt with after the Constitution had become the "supreme law of the land." Although successful in the short term, that strategy left the Constitution excessively prone to subjective interpretation and, as a result, the United States was rendered vulnerable to anti-democratic initiatives and the perpetuation of minority rule, both of which plague the nation today. Thus, a constitution drafted to ensure "a more perfect union" has instead begotten dysfunction and disunion. The ossification of America's political process is to a significant degree due not to what the Constitution says but rather from what it fails to say. The only way to address the threat these omissions engender is to identify the flaws and then complete the Constitution by fashioning legislative solutions to fill the gaps.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Prologue: Negative Space
• Chapter 1. The States of the Union: The Lack of National Identity
• Chapter 2. The Road to Philadelphia: One Revolution Was Enough
• Chapter 3. The Early Rounds: Probing for Weakness
• Chapter 4. New Math: Apportionment and the Census
• Chapter 5. A Few Good (White) Men: Voting…
• Chapter 6. …and Citizenship
• Chapter 7. Contorting the Truth: Gerrymandering
• Chapter 8. Judicial Review: Nature…and Chief Justice Marshall…Abhor a Vacuum
• Chapter 9. In Judgment Before Foreigners: The Question of a National Judiciary
• Chapter 10. Unreliable Narrator: The Federalist Essays
• Chapter 11. The Will of a Few of the People: The Electoral College
• Chapter 12. Arms and the (Common) Man: Whither a National Military
• Chapter 13. An Anti-Textualist Interlude: Necessary and Proper
• Chapter 14. The Repair Shop: The Steep Road to Amendment
• Chapter 15. Tyranny of Minority: American Democracy on the Brink
• Chapter 16. Filling in the Blanks: What Needs to Be Done
• Selected Bibliography
• Endnotes
• Index