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Bruce A. Ackerman

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Foundations (Volume 1) (We the People) Paperback – March 15, 1993

by Bruce Ackerman (Author)

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Bruce Ackerman offers a sweeping reinterpretation of our nation’s constitutional experience and its promise for the future. Integrating themes from American history, political science, and philosophy, We the People confronts the past, present, and future of popular sovereignty in America. Only this distinguished scholar could present such an insightful view of the role of the Supreme Court. Rejecting arguments of judicial activists, proceduralists, and neoconservatives, Ackerman proposes a new model of judicial interpretation that would synthesize the constitutional contributions of many generations into a coherent whole. The author ranges from examining the origins of the dualist tradition in the Federalist Papers to reflecting upon recent, historic constitutional decisions. The latest revolutions in civil rights, and the right to privacy, are integrated into the fabric of constitutionalism. Today’s Constitution can best be seen as the product of three great exercises in popular sovereignty, led by the Founding Federalists in the 1780s, the Reconstruction Republicans in the 1860s, and the New Deal Democrats in the 1930s.

Ackerman examines the roles played during each of these periods by the Congress, the Presidency, and the Supreme Court. He shows that Americans have built a distinctive type of constitutional democracy, unlike any prevailing in Europe. It is a dualist democracy, characterized by its continuing effort to distinguish between two kinds of politics: normal politics, in which organized interest groups try to influence democratically elected representatives; and constitutional politics, in which the mass of citizens mobilize to debate matters of fundamental principle. Although American history is dominated by normal politics, our tradition places a higher value on mobilized efforts to gain the consent of the people to new governing principles. In a dualist democracy, the rare triumphs of constitutional politics determine the course of normal politics.

More than a decade in the making, and the first of three volumes, We the People, Volume 1: Foundations speaks to all who seek to renew and redefine our civic commitments in the decades ahead.

Print length

384 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
Publication date

March 15, 1993
Dimensions

6.11 x 1.02 x 9.21 inches
ISBN-10

0674948416
ISBN-13

978-0674948419
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[We the People] cuts through the futile and absurd search for the ‘original intent of the founders’ as the way to discover the will of the people. It recognizes that the great and extraordinary occasions required for action by the people have not been confined to a single instance in the eighteenth century. It deflates the pretensions of politicians in normal politics but magnifies the importance of political leadership in mobilizing popular support for constitutional politics when constitutional politics is needed. It gives pragmatic meaning to government of, by, and for the elusive, invisible, inaudible, but sovereign people.”―Edmund S. Morgan, New York Review of Books

“This book is one of the most important contributions to American constitutional thought in the last half-century.”―Cass R. Sunstein, New Republic

“We the People can be recommended to anyone seeking a readable and complete introduction to the state of current Constitutional thought. Its analysis of the constraints on past and present judges and legal theorists, and the weaknesses in a panoply of jurisprudential positions is lucid and elegant.”―Stephen Presser, Chicago Tribune

“The most important project now underway in the entire field of constitutional theory…to be published in this decade…indeed, perhaps in the past half-century… Ackerman posits a complex process of ‘Publian politics’ where ‘We the People’ become authorized to change the Constitution without ever invoking the procedures laid out in Article V… We the People can also lay claim to being the most significant work in ‘constructive’ American political thought since Louis Hartz’s The Liberal Tradition in America, published some 35 years ago… Ackerman is reopening the question about ‘American exceptionalism’ and arguing, with extraordinary vigor, that American political development is indeed importantly different from European and other models.”―Sanford Levinson, University of Texas School of Law

“[We the People is] one of the most distinguished works on the American Constitution since World War II. It combines law, political theory, political science―and even a little economics―with a rare attention to history, and it does so while developing an extremely innovative and original argument, one that has a solid claim to acceptance… There is no doubt that the book will be highly influential. I think that it will significantly alter the way that people think and talk about the American Constitution… The book is extremely well-written. Indeed, it successfully carries out the most unusual task of making difficult matters accessible to an extremely wide audience… This is a truly distinguished contribution to constitutional thought, one that will reorient the field in major ways.”―Cass R. Sunstein, University of Chicago Law School

About the Author

Bruce Ackerman is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University and the award-winning author of eighteen books, including Social Justice in the Liberal State and his multivolume constitutional history We the People. His book The Stakeholder Society (written with Anne Alstott) served as a basis for Tony Blair’s introduction of child investment accounts in the United Kingdom. He contributes frequently to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. Ackerman is a member of the American Law Institute and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the recipient of the American Philosophical Society’s Henry M. Phillips Prize for lifetime achievement in jurisprudence.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press; Revised ed. edition (March 15, 1993)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674948416
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674948419
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.14 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.11 x 1.02 x 9.21 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,223,317 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #778 in Legal History (Books)
- #1,191 in General Constitutional Law
- #6,816 in Political Science (Books)

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C. Sorrow

Must read for serious constitutional scholars

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2007

Some of these reviews are unfair to the book, or at least overly simplistic. At least one seems like an attack on Ackerman's theory than an evaluation of whether the book is worth reading. With the caveat that this book isn't a constitutional primer--if you're looking for an overview of the constitution or constitutional history, DON'T start here--I believe this book is a must-read for anyone who's serious about current constitutional theory and/or constitutional history. At a minimum, so many current constitutional scholars of all colors have read (and often been influenced by) Ackerman that understanding his theory is essential to understand the modern debate.

Beyond that, though, the book (or, more accurately, the series) attempts two things. First, it's a descriptive work of how our interpretation of the constitution has changed over time. On that front, most constitutional scholars would agree that Ackerman has a great deal of merit. It's hard to disagree that the Civil War/Reconstruction and the New Deal were two of the three most intense periods of informal constitutional change (i.e., change in the way the constitution is interpreted rather than formal changes to the constitution itself), the other being the Civil Rights Movement. Ackerman's description of the how and why of those changes is entertaining and well-done, not to mention ground-breaking. Second, it's a prescriptive work. In a nutshell, it's Ackerman's theory of how we should interpret the constiution. For obvious reasons, this is the more controversial part of Ackerman's work, not to mention the "hard" part, as one reviewer described it. You don't have to buy Ackerman's theory, though, to find it intriguing. I would note that it's not radical in the political sense (i.e., the Crits). It's rooted enough in history and it provides enough stability that the original meaning scholars have to respect it (in fact, it's really a variant on original meaning, except that it puts meaning circa 1932 and 1966 on equal footing with 1791), yet it offers enough flexibility in interpretation that more liberal scholars have to respect it as well.

Personally, I don't agree with Ackerman's prescriptive guidance, but I thoroughly enjoyed his historical analysis, and the prescriptive part forced me to do some hard thinking--and that's the highest compliment I can pay an author.

14 people found this helpful

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Christopher John Brennan

Essential Historical Constitutional Analysis

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 1999

Ackerman describes historically how we arrived at our current Constitutional jurisprudence. He compares the original Constitution with the changes arising out of Reconstruction and then out of the New Deal--emphasizing that those changes cannot be adequately described within the formal Article V ammendment process. We might wish history had gone otherwise--I know I often do--but he gives a framework to at least understand it.
This book is a major step forward in recogizing that the fundemental structures of American Constitutional law require both sound analytical models as well as rich historical context.
This is one of the handful of most thought-provoking and persuasive books I have read on the Constitutional process.

23 people found this helpful

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Arnold

Part frustrating, part brilliant

Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2011

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I find this book a mixture of brilliant and frustrating. While the skeptic in me was frustrated by Ackerman's frequent references to "We the People" - as if people have anything to do with ratifying constitutions - I did think he provides some useful insights. I particularly liked his description of how judges have to synthesize different layers and periods of constitutional law. Ackerman recognizes that judges not only have to interpret THE Constitution, but also decide what effects the various amendments have had and what changes after major constitutional "moments," such as the New Deal.

However, I also found myself wondering whether Ackerman's story really needs the assumption that constitutional moments are generated by the citizenry organizing for constitutional change (and presumably singing Kumbaya). It seems the same story of synthesizing various time periods of constitutional law could be told even if the development of constitutional law were purely an elite phenomenon. In other words, it doesn't really matter whether "the people spoke" in passing the Reconstruction amendments, or if it was really just a bunch of Republican radicals who made sure that Southern and female "people" played no part in the process.

I personally hope an elite-based approach would work with Ackerman's analysis because he has quite a bit that's worth saving, but I just can't go along with the unrealistic assumption about popular constitutional moments.

4 people found this helpful

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Michael B.

Specific to the Kindle Version, Lack of Page Numbers is inexcusable

Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2020

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Self-explanatory, really. The lack of page numbers in the Kindle Edition makes the text borderline unreadable for practical purposes.

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100%

Reviewed in Brazil on July 21, 2020

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Maria

Very insightful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 6, 2014

Verified Purchase

Terrific account of many relevant aspects of today's politics. Gave me a deeper understanding on many issues concerning the American nation and it's functioning.

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