James Ceaser on Political Constitutionalism

[Valin]

National Review:

 

Ed Whelan

6/20/12

 

Now available online from the spring 2012 issue of the Claremont Review of Books is an excellent essay by University of Virginia professor of politics James W. Ceaser that aims to recover the concept of political constitutionalism. Here, with some selected excerpts, is my stab at presenting Ceaser’s main points:

 

There are two senses of the Constitution, both of which are important.

 

The dominant—and, for many, exclusive—understanding of the Constitution is legalistic constitutionalism, a set of rules and doctrines developed by judges to decide cases. Legalistic constitutionalism by itself doesn’t offer much promise of constraining undisciplined government.

 

The second sense, of political constitutionalism, “must assume the principal role in any campaign for a constitutional revival.” Unfortunately, the very concept “has all but slipped from our grasp.” Political constitutionalism recognizes that under our Constitution “it falls mostly to political actors making political decisions to protect and promote constitutional goals”:

 

(Snip)