ONE REASON WHY OUR CONSTITUTION IS SO SUCCESSFUL. I have always assumed that it was remarkable that our Constitution was so good, given that there were almost no precedents to work with.
Annalisa gave me for Christmas MADISON’S GIFT by David O. Stewart. Stewart makes a point that hadn’t occurred to me:
“Americans in 1787 had more experience writing constitutions than virtually any other society in history. Over the previous eleven years, they had written thirteen state constitutions and the Articles of Confederation.” Americans for over a decade had debated dozens of possible solutions to questions posed by a constitution, and had had some experience with how some of the approaches had worked out.
What are your measures of success?
I would argue that from the outset it had serious flaws, not the least of which led to one of the most vicious and deadly of civil wars.
The unfortunate propensity to stalemate at the national level and among the constituent states remains.