Civic Constitution

Civic Visions and Struggles in the Path Toward Constitutional Democracy
Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-0-19-069255-1
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 368 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 613 g

How have generations of Americans debated and shaped the constitutional meanings of liberty, equality, justice, and "We, the people"? What roles have engaged citizens and social movements played in effecting transformative constitutional change? These questions are at the heart of Elizabeth Beaumont's lucid and compelling study. In The Civic Constitution, she traces four crucial eras of constitutional dispute and reinvention: the revolutionaries who catalyzed the Declaration of Independence and first state constitutions; the antifederalists and other critics who influenced the national Constitution and Bill of Rights; the abolitionists who paved the way for the Reconstruction Amendments; and the suffragists whose battles provoked the Nineteenth Amendment.

Beaumont argues that these groups should be recognized as civic founders-and co-founders-of the U.S. Constitution. Through newspaper broadsides, petitions, convention speeches, sermons, boycotts, and protests, these men and women worked to redefine fundamental law. Challenging established authority, they advocated vital new understandings of popular self-governance, rights, liberties, and citizenship. Indeed, though their roles are often overlooked in contemporary debates, these civic reformers not only shaped the legal text and terms of modern constitutionalism, but reconstructed the meaning of civic membership, in terms of both norms and fundamental commitments.

The Civic Constitution is a sweeping work of reinterpretation that speaks to students of American politics, history, and law. This richly documented study offers a keener understanding of the Constitution and a more profound perception of civic identity and democracy itself.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Beaumont, Elizabeth

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Demokratie
• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht Staats- und Verfassungsrecht Verfassungsgeschichte, Verfassungsvergleichung
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Introduction

- 1: The Civic Constitution

- Part One: Revisiting the 18th Century Founding

- 2: Making Liberty Popular

- Revolutionaries' "Common Sense" Popular Constitutionalism and New State Republics

- 3: The Unfinished Constitution

- Quarrels and Claims of "We, the People" in Constitutional Creation and Ratification

- Part Two: Civic Struggles to Refound "We, the People" and the Constitution

- 4: Pursuing Equality

- Abolitionists' Anti-slavery Constitutionalism and Reconstruction

- 5: Claiming Justice

- Suffragists' Gender Justice Constitutionalism and Transformation

- 6: The Complexities of a Civic Founders' Constitution

Über Autor(innen)

Elizabeth Beaumont is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, where she focuses on democracy, citizenship, and constitutionalism. Previously, she was a Research Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In addition to her work on constitutionalism, she has co-authored books on civic education and political engagement.