The U. S. Constitution begins with the soaring words "We the
People," but we, the people, have little to do with the document as
most of us have come to know it. When most people think of the
constitution they think of it as a legal instrument, the province
of judges and lawyers, who alone possess the expertise and
knowledge necessary to discern its elusive and complex meaning.
This book outlines a very different view of the Constitution as
a moral and philosophical statement about who we are as a nation.
This "Civic Constitution" constitutes us as a civic body politic,
transforming "the people" into a singular political entity.
Juxtaposing this view with the legal model, the "Juridic
Constitution," John E. Finn offers a comprehensive account of the
Civic Constitution as a public affirmation of the shared principles
of national self-identity, and as a particular vision of political
community in which we the people play a significant and ongoing
role in achieving a constitutional way of life. The Civic
Constitution is the constitution of dialogical engagement, of
contested meanings, of political principles, of education, of
conversation.
"Peopling the Constitution" seeks nothing less than a new
interpretation of the American constitutional project in an effort
to revive a robust understanding of citizenship. It considers the
entire constitutional project, from its founding and maintenance to
its failure, with insights into topics ranging from the practice of
deliberative democracy and the meaning of citizenship, to
constitutional fidelity, civic virtue, the separation of powers,
federalism, and constitutional interpretation. The Civic
Constitution, in Finn's telling, is primarily a political project
requiring an active, engaged, and most importantly,
constitutionally educated citizenry committed to the civic virtues
of civility and tending. When we as citizens are unwilling or
unable to tend to and sustain the Constitution, and when
constitutional questions reduce to legal questions and obscure
civic interests, constitutional rot results. And in post-9/11
America, Finn argues, constitutional rot has begun to set in.
With its multi-dimensional vision of constitutional governance,
Finn's book stands as a corrective to accounts that locate the
Constitution in and conceive it essentially as a legal instrument,
making a powerful and impassioned argument for restoring the people
to their rightful place in the politics and practice of the
Constitution.
General
| Imprint: |
University Press of Kansas
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Series: |
Constitutional Thinking |
| Release date: |
February 2014 |
| First published: |
February 2014 |
| Authors: |
John E. Finn
|
| Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 30mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Hardcover - Cloth over boards / With dust jacket
|
| Pages: |
384 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-7006-1962-7 |
| Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Politics & government >
Political science & theory
|
| LSN: |
0-7006-1962-3 |
| Barcode: |
9780700619627 |
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