Abstract
In the latest volume of Bruce Ackerman's We the People, he sets out to demonstrate that the Constitution has been legitimately amended by “unconventional” means, or by mechanisms other than the Article V amendment process. In making this argument, Ackerman offers a rich constitutional history of the Founding period, the Reconstruction era, and the New Deal. He successfully demonstrates that unconventional methods were used to alter accepted constitutional meaning and government practices during these periods. Unfortunately, Ackerman does not provide an adequate theory that can demonstrate the legal significance of these historical events for future constitutional practice. Moreover, his effort to legitimate the New Deal's constitutional revolution undermines his own normative theory of “dualist democracy” and seems to embrace a standard Legal Realist analysis that the Constitution simply is whatever powerful government officials declare it to mean.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ackerman, B. (1984) "Discovering the Constitution." Yale Law Journal 93: 1013–72.
Ackerman, B. (1985) "Beyond Carolene Products." Harvard Law Review 98: 713–46.
Ackerman, B. (1988) "Transformative Appointments." Harvard Law Review 101: 1164–84.
Ackerman, B. (1989) "Constitutional Politics/Constitutional Law." Yale Law Journal 99: 453–547.
Ackerman, B. (1991) We the People: Vol. 1, Foundations. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Ackerman, B. (1992) "Liberating Abstraction." University of Chicago Law Review 59: 317–48.
Ackerman, B. (1997) "A Generation of Betrayal?" Fordham Law Review 65: 1519–36.
Ackerman, B. (1998) We the People: Vol. 2, Transformations. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Ackerman, B., and Golove, D. (1995) Is Nafta Constitutional? Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Ackerman, B., and Katyal, N.K. (1995) "Our Unconventional Founding." University of Chicago Law Review 62: 475–573.
Berger, R. (1977) Government by Judiciary: The Transformation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Bickel, A. M. (1962) The Least Dangerous Branch: The Supreme Court at the Bar of Politics. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
Bork, R. H. (1990) The Tempting of America: The Political Seduction of the Law. New York: Free Press.
Burnham, W. D. (1970) Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics. New York: W. W. Norton.
Carmines, E. G., and Stimson, J. A. (1989) Issue Evolution: Race and the Transformation of American Politics.Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Dworkin, R. (1978) Taking Rights Seriously. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Ely, J. H. (1980) Democracy and Distrust: A Theory of Judicial Review. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Epstein, R. A. (1985) Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Fleming, J. E. (1998)"We the Unconventional American People." University of Chicago Law Review65: 1513–42.
Gillman, H. (1993) The Constitution Besieged: The Rise and Demise of Lochner Era Police Powers Jurisprudence.Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Leuchtenburg, W. E. (1995) The Supreme Court Reborn: The Constitutional Revolution in the Age of Roosevelt.New York: Oxford University Press.
Madison, J., Hamilton, A., and Jay, J. (1961) The Federalist Papers. Rossiter, C. (ed.) New York: Mentor.
Mansfield, H. C. (1991) America's Constitutional Soul. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Mayhew, D. R. (1991) Divided We Govern: Party Control, Lawmaking, and Investigations, 1946–1990. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Rosenberg, G. N. (1999) "Review of Bruce Ackerman's We the People: Transformations." The Green Bag 2: 209–18.
Sherry, S. (1992) "The Ghost of Liberalism Past." Harvard Law Review 105: 918–34.
Skowronek, S. (1993) The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to George Bush. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Sunstein, C. R. (1993) The Partial Constitution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Whittington, K. E. (1999a) Constitutional Construction: Divided Powers and Constitutional Meaning. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Whittington, K. E. (1999b) Constitutional Interpretation: Textual Meaning, Original Intent and Judicial Review.Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
Wood, G. S. (1969) The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787. New York: W. W. Norton.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Whittington, K.E. From Democratic Dualism to Political Realism: Transforming the Constitution. Constitutional Political Economy 10, 405–414 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009083219010
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009083219010