Neither Sovereign Nor Subject: The Constitutional People and Their Transformative Authority

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Mink, Joseph

Keywords

Whig, United States Constitution, Federalism, Hobbes, Thomas, Arendt, Hannah, Madison, James, Ackerman, Bruce, Harris, William F. II, Wood, Gordon S.

Area of Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

Constitutional lawmaking can be understood as the action of a popular sovereign who exists outside of government, but alternatively as the self-transformation of a constitutional polity. Of these two modes of lawmaking, which is most apparent in the constitutional changes of post-Revolutionary America? Despite persistent appeals to sovereign acts, I argue that it is a constitutional people, who, concomitant with the Constitution and speaking through it, make constitutional change. This study examines two instances of politically-driven constitutional transformation. The decisive presidential election of 1896 caused the Supreme Court to consolidate the doctrines that the new President, William McKinley, would rely upon to bring about his economic vision for America. President Ronald Reagan won a mandate to remake government, and he used his power to affect the judiciary toward that end. He pioneered the rigorously ideological use of the Executive branch's powers to argue cases and appoint judges, something which no president before him had done so systematically and effectively. In doing so, he caused subtle but longlasting changes to the Constitution.

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