Most of us regard the Constitution as the foundation of American
democracy. How, then, are we to understand the restrictions that it
imposes on legislatures and voters? Why, for example, does the
Constitution allow unelected judges to exercise so much power? And
why is this centuries-old document so difficult to amend? In short,
how can we call ourselves a democracy when we are bound by an
entrenched, and sometimes counter-majoritarian, constitution?
In "Constitutional Self-Government," Christopher Eisgruber
focuses directly on the Constitution's seemingly undemocratic
features. Whereas other scholars have tried to reconcile these
features with majority rule, or simply acknowledged them as
necessary limits on democracy, Eisgruber argues that
constitutionalism is best regarded not as a constraint upon
self-government, but as a crucial ingredient in a complex,
non-majoritarian form of democracy. In an original and provocative
argument, he contends that legislatures and elections provide only
an incomplete representation of the people, and he claims that the
Supreme Court should be regarded as another of the institutions
able to speak for Americans about justice. At a pivotal moment of
worldwide interest in judicial review and renewed national
controversy over the Supreme Court's role in politics,
"Constitutional Self-Government" ingeniously locates the
Constitution's value in its capacity to sustain an array of
institutions that render self-government meaningful for a large and
diverse people.
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