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The Journal of politics, 2017-07, Vol.79 (3), p.936-948
Ort / Verlag
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Erscheinungsjahr
2017
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Beschreibungen/Notizen
The persistence of the debate between living constitutionalists and originalists in the United States is often attributed to motives of political expediency on one or both sides. Without denying the influence of suchmotives, this article maintains that the debate persists also because of an inevitable fraying of the connection between the written Constitution and the popular consent that is meant to underpin it. In order to clarify the problem, I turn to Thomas Jefferson’s “earth belongs to the living” letter, which is less idiosyncratic and perhaps also less idealistic than generally believed, and which shows how written constitutionalismmight have been better combined with the consent of the people over the long term. In sum, this article offers a revised view of a controversial aspect of Jefferson’s thought and, with it, a revised view of a central debate in contemporary American politics.