Start Here – Constitution

The USA has a single document, running to no more than 7,000 words – under 20 printed pages – which contains most of the country’s constitutional arrangements. This is quite a feat when one considers the length of other constitutions – Alabama’s state constitution is 357,157 words long! The US constitution is also the oldest constitution that is still in use today, in 2015 it is 226 years old, also an impressive achievement when one considers that in the same amount of time France alone has had 17 constitutions!

To gain a thorough understanding of the US constitution, one must first understand the context in which it was created. Once this is understood, the rational for the content of the constitution becomes much clearer. The ‘United States’ in 1776 were 13 British-ruled colonies on the eastern coast of North America. A variety of disagreements with the British over economic issues such as taxation, and political issues, such as a degree of representation and self-determination contributed to the rapid deterioration of relations between the two. This deterioration culminated in the Declaration of Independence in which the American colonists outlined their reasons for rejecting British rule and set out key principles upon which they would later base their own government.

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html

It is this rejection, and fear, of authoritarian and undemocratic rule that underpins the US constitution –the Founding Fathers sought to design a republican system of government that would never allow a single individual (not even the President) the sole power to rule and encroach on the rights of citizens ever again. It is from this that several key constitutional principles are derived; republicanism, federalism, popular sovereignty, the separation of powers, a system of checks and balances, and the rights of citizens.

The Founding Fathers were also acutely aware of the need for the constitution to evolve over time and including a process for amending the constitution, whilst making the amendment process difficult enough to avoid numerous and unimportant alterations. In addition to the amendment process, the constitution left out some key principles such as judicial review and remains quite vague on other issues – allowing different interpretations of the constitution to be made to reflect modern society (although quite often conservative and liberal interpretations still differ allowing full and frank debates on constitutional issues). These debates and the different interpretations of the constitution will be essential for your understanding the key constitutional and contemporary political issues in the USA today.