And yet the other difference is the deeper and, in a sense, the more essential. He uttered it as part of his defense of American self-government against the encroachment of parliament, and no one writing in a cooler age can improve upon its analysis. The individual must seek his court and must know his remedy, and under such a compulsion he will undertake to do both. It is of the essence of a constitutional system that its people should think straight, maintain a consistent purpose, look before and after, and make their lives the image of their thoughts. The development of national industries in the 19th and early 20th centuries played a major part in strengthening national as against regional and local political entities, but the scale of economic activity has now outgrown national markets. Old phrases spring to new significance as one’s thought clears in such matters. Spiritual things are not wholly comparable with materal things, and political liberty is a thing of the spirits of men; but we speak of friction in things that affect our spirits, and do not feel that it is altogether a figure of speech. The attachments that people have to subnational political communities are loosened when they must depend for their security on the national power. A constitutional government is any government whose authority and construction are defined by a constitution. Four documents have been declared by Congress to represent our " Organic Law :" The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, and The Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Our founders were intimately familiar with pandemics, viruses and plagues, yet they did not allow any to suspend our Constitutional liberties. It grants nothing. Among other clients, he has provided legal services to … We may summarize our view of constitutional government by saying that its ultimate and essential objects are: 1st. By a constitutional government we, of course, do not mean merely a government conducted according to the government with which our thoughts deal at all has a definite constitution, written or unwritten, and we should not dream of speaking of all modern government as “constitutional.”. In each case, the transition from the older forms of constitutionalism to modern constitutional democracy was accompanied by the institutionalization of parties and the development of techniques of party competition. Whatever institutions, whatever practices serve these ends, are necessary to such a system: those which do not, or which serve it imperfectly, should be dispensed with or bettered. As technology empowers more countries to directly affect the state of the planet as well as other countries, there are increasing incentives to limit the domestic policy choices of all countries. We think of it as a highly theoretical document, but except for its assertion that all men are equal it is not. The name “parliament” is no accidental indication of their function. The theory of our law is that an officer is an officer only so long as he acts within his powers; that when he transcends his authority he ceases to be an officer and is only a private individual, subject to be sued and punished for his offense. 3. It remains only to note what may be called the atmosphere of constitutional government. Opportunity & property gone. The Prime Minister is the head of government, chairs Cabinet and has a general coordinating responsibility across all areas of government. The national ideal triumphed as a result of the wars of the 19th and 20th centuries. . Such a system is based upon a definite understanding between governors and governed. Even in the heavily industrialized states of the modern world, there has been an accelerating tendency toward greater centralization of power at the national level. It does not say what men shall have by way of freedom and privilege; it speaks only of what restraints the king’s government shall observe in seeking to abridge such freedom and privilege as Englishmen already of right enjoy. All the major forces of world politics—e.g., war, the development of national economies, and the demand for social services—have reinforced the national state as the primary focus of people’s loyalties. The least lack of adjustment will heat it with friction and hold it stiff and unmanageable. C. Its power is split between a monarch and a parliament. They were speaking, not out of theory, but out of practice and experience, for the maintenance of privileges which they coneived themselves time out of mind to have possessed. In medieval England and France, for example, the crown was perennially threatened by the power of the feudal nobles, and a protracted struggle was necessary before the national domain was subjected to full royal control. . If the president’s party or coalition also controls a legislative majority, the prime minister is generally a secondary figure, responsible for the day-to-day running of the government. The essential functions of political parties in a constitutional democracy are the integration of a multitude of interests, beliefs, and values into one or more programs or proposals for change and the nomination of party members for elective office in the government. Such an attitude presupposes both intelligence and independence of spirit on the part of the individual: such a system elicits intelligence and creates independence of spirit. D. It is not ruled by a monarch. Powered by Beck & Stone. The values of liberal democracy have always been about individual rights and duties. Of course the parliament of England runs back in its origins beyond 1215; but the parliament which Simon of Montfort set up in 1265 and Edward confirmed in 1295 was the first that definitely received and accepted the trust of preserving the liberties, the free choices, of England against the wilful preferences of her kings, upon the basis laid in Magna Carta; and until that parliament was set up, with its burgesses and knights of the shire, the barons had attempted, as again and again they forced upon their kings a renewal of the greater charter, to provide against its infringement by the watchfulness of representatives delegated from their own ranks to see that faith was kept. That is the explicit principle of American law not only, but of English law also: the American practice is derived from the English. Wars have played the major part in strengthening national governments and weakening political regionalism and localism. The Declaration of Independence speaks to the same effect. We say of a boat skimming the water with a light foot, ’How free she runs,’ when we mean, how perfectly she is adjusted to the force of the wind, how perfectly she obeys the great breath out of the heavens that fills her sails. It does not remian fixed in any unchanging form, but grows with the growth and is altered with the change of the nation’s seeds and purposes. There is nowhere any such thing as a literally absolute government. It is a body of distinct stipulations as to where the lines of privilege shall run, where individual rights shall begin and governmental rights stop, in the more critical dealings between rulers and citizens. Nations are made up of individuals, and the dealings of government with individuals are the ultimate and perfect test of its constitutional character. While all constitutions have these general characteristics, each constitution is affected by the national character of the state it services. And yet at the very outset it is necessary to pause upon a theory. The duty of the Legislative Branch is to make the laws of the nation. My object in the following lectures is to examine the government of the United States as a constitutional system as simply and directly as possible, with an eye to practice, not to theory. In nearly all contemporary states, the national budget is dominated by expenditures for defense, the military employs the largest fraction of the workforce, and questions of national security pervade the discussion of politics. To inquire into such matters is to make intimate approach to the very essence of constitutional government; but we approach that essence still more intimately when we turn from the community, from the nation, and from the assembly which represents it, to the individual. Itconsists of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. C. 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