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Author: Stu Woolman
Publisher: Juta and Company Ltd
ISBN: 9781485100072
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 654
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Book Description
Stu Woolman - The Selfless Constitution: Experimentalism and Flourishing as Foundations of South Africa's Basic Law Do you possess 'freedom' -- the will to do as you like -- as an individual, as a participant in social affairs or as a citizen in the political realm? Well, no. Not as most of us understand a term loaded down with metaphysical baggage. Don't worry. You've got something better: a brain capable of carrying out the most complex analytical; membership in innumerable communities that provide you with huge stores of knowledge; and a politico-constitutional order that ought to provide the material goods and immaterial conditions that will enable you to pursue a life worth valuing. As many recent studies of consciousness reveal, our neurological systems are complex feedback mechanisms designed to create myriad opportunities for trial and error and the production of new stores of knowledge. Individuals -- comprised of radically heterogeneous, naturally and socially determined selves -- are always experimenting, attempting to divine through reflection and action, what works best: even when 'best' means fully embracing who we already are. A constitutional democracy, made up of millions of radically heterogeneous, densely populated individuals and a myriad of equally complex social formations, should regularly run experiments that attempt to eliminate our biases, and to deliver heuristics that nudge us away from negative defaults toward more optimal ends. Because South Africa's Constitution states only some of the norms that govern our lives, it remains for citizens, representatives and judges to create doctrines and institutions that serve its capaciously framed ends best. After canvassing the most recent literature in neuroscience, empirical philosophy, behavioural psychology, social capital theory, development economics, the capabilities approach and emergent experimental governance, The Selfless Constitution suggests that the promotion of experiments in living, married to a commitment to the expansion of individual capabilities, is likely to produce more optimal ways of being that can be replicated, and further enhanced, by other members of our polity. The book spins out its novel thesis against the concrete backdrop of political arrangements and judicial doctrines that have emerged during the first 18 years of South Africa's truly vibrant constitutional democracy. Its trenchant analysis of South African institutions and case law shows us how far we have come and how far we still have to go.
Author: Stu Woolman
Publisher: Juta and Company Ltd
ISBN: 9781485100072
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 654
Get Book Here
Book Description
Stu Woolman - The Selfless Constitution: Experimentalism and Flourishing as Foundations of South Africa's Basic Law Do you possess 'freedom' -- the will to do as you like -- as an individual, as a participant in social affairs or as a citizen in the political realm? Well, no. Not as most of us understand a term loaded down with metaphysical baggage. Don't worry. You've got something better: a brain capable of carrying out the most complex analytical; membership in innumerable communities that provide you with huge stores of knowledge; and a politico-constitutional order that ought to provide the material goods and immaterial conditions that will enable you to pursue a life worth valuing. As many recent studies of consciousness reveal, our neurological systems are complex feedback mechanisms designed to create myriad opportunities for trial and error and the production of new stores of knowledge. Individuals -- comprised of radically heterogeneous, naturally and socially determined selves -- are always experimenting, attempting to divine through reflection and action, what works best: even when 'best' means fully embracing who we already are. A constitutional democracy, made up of millions of radically heterogeneous, densely populated individuals and a myriad of equally complex social formations, should regularly run experiments that attempt to eliminate our biases, and to deliver heuristics that nudge us away from negative defaults toward more optimal ends. Because South Africa's Constitution states only some of the norms that govern our lives, it remains for citizens, representatives and judges to create doctrines and institutions that serve its capaciously framed ends best. After canvassing the most recent literature in neuroscience, empirical philosophy, behavioural psychology, social capital theory, development economics, the capabilities approach and emergent experimental governance, The Selfless Constitution suggests that the promotion of experiments in living, married to a commitment to the expansion of individual capabilities, is likely to produce more optimal ways of being that can be replicated, and further enhanced, by other members of our polity. The book spins out its novel thesis against the concrete backdrop of political arrangements and judicial doctrines that have emerged during the first 18 years of South Africa's truly vibrant constitutional democracy. Its trenchant analysis of South African institutions and case law shows us how far we have come and how far we still have to go.
Author: Woody Holton
Publisher: Hill and Wang
ISBN: 1429923660
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386
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Book Description
Average Americans Were the True Framers of the Constitution Woody Holton upends what we think we know of the Constitution's origins by telling the history of the average Americans who challenged the framers of the Constitution and forced on them the revisions that produced the document we now venerate. The framers who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 were determined to reverse America's post–Revolutionary War slide into democracy. They believed too many middling Americans exercised too much influence over state and national policies. That the framers were only partially successful in curtailing citizen rights is due to the reaction, sometimes violent, of unruly average Americans. If not to protect civil liberties and the freedom of the people, what motivated the framers? In Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, Holton provides the startling discovery that the primary purpose of the Constitution was, simply put, to make America more attractive to investment. And the linchpin to that endeavor was taking power away from the states and ultimately away from the people. In an eye-opening interpretation of the Constitution, Holton captures how the same class of Americans that produced Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts (and rebellions in damn near every other state) produced the Constitution we now revere. Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution is a 2007 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction.
Author: Michel Rosenfeld
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135253285
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 344
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Book Description
The last fifty years has seen a worldwide trend toward constitutional democracy. But can constitutionalism become truly global? Relying on historical examples of successfully implanted constitutional regimes, ranging from the older experiences in the United States and France to the relatively recent ones in Germany, Spain and South Africa, Michel Rosenfeld sheds light on the range of conditions necessary for the emergence, continuity and adaptability of a viable constitutional identity - citizenship, nationalism, multiculturalism, and human rights being important elements. The Identity of the Constitutional Subject is the first systematic analysis of the concept, drawing on philosophy, psychoanalysis, political theory and law from a comparative perspective to explore the relationship between the ideal of constitutionalism and the need to construct a common constitutional identity that is distinct from national, cultural, ethnic or religious identity. The Identity of the Constitutional Subject will be of interest to students and scholars in law, legal and political philosophy, political science, multicultural studies, international relations and US politics.
Author: David Dyzenhaus
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107093384
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 349
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Book Description
This book brings the three most important twentieth-century theorists of the rule of law into debate with each other.
Author: David S. Law
Publisher:
ISBN: 110842709X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 611
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Book Description
A broad-ranging, interdisciplinary, and context-rich exploration of the fields of constitutional studies and comparative constitutional law for research and teaching.
Author: James M. Buchanan
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472061006
Category : Decision-making
Languages : en
Pages : 388
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Book Description
A scientific study of the political and economic factors influencing democratic decision making
Author: Ousman A.S. Jammeh
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 9781467007429
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 406
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Book Description
There is no available information at this time.
Author: Charles A. Beard
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486140458
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338
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Book Description
This classic study — one of the most influential in the area of American economic history — questioned the founding fathers' motivations and prompted new perceptions of the supreme law of the land.
Author: Howard Gillman
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822316428
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 336
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Book Description
The Constitution Besieged offers a compelling reinterpretation of one of the most notorious periods in American constitutional history. In the decades following the Civil War, federal and state judges struck down as unconstitutional a great deal of innovative social and economic legislation. Scholars have traditionally viewed this as the work of a conservative judiciary more interested in promoting laissez-faire economics than in interpreting the Constitution. Howard Gillman challenges this scholarly orthodoxy by showing how these judges were in fact observing a long-standing constitutional prohibition against "class legislation." By reviewing unfamiliar state cases and legal commentary, and by providing fresh interpretations of familiar Supreme Court cases, Gillman uncovers a fascinating - and long forgotten - legal tradition. In this richly textured historical narrative, we see how American judges once worked to insure that legislative power be used only to promote the public good, and not to benefit certain classes or burden their market competitors. Beyond shedding new light on this jurisprudence, Gillman also links it to larger debates in the political system, debates traced to concerns about factional politics expressed by the country's founders and to the Jacksonian assault on special privileges. This tradition came under siege with the intensification of class conflict at the turn of the century, and Gillman carefully documents its demise. He details how industrialization undermined assumptions about the fairness of capitalist social relations, and how this led increasing numbers of people to question the requirement that the state remain neutral in matters of class conflict - thus leaving it to a stalwart judiciary to protect "a Constitution besieged." A major contribution to an understanding of this important period in the history of the Supreme Court, Gillman's work stands as a landmark in revisionist accounts of the "Lochner era." Gillman's study represents the kind of paradigm-shift that will undoubtedly affect a wide range of scholarly activity for some time to come. The broad scope of this work makes it essential reading for those interested in American political thought, the development of the American state, the relationship between law and social change, and contemporary debates about the original intent of the framers of the Constitution and the proper role of the judiciary in American politics.
Author: Eric Lane
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 159691839X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305
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Book Description
Due to a combination of heightened frustration, moves to skirt the constitutional process, and a widespread disconnect between the people and their constitutional "conscience," Lane and Oreskes warn us our longstanding Democracy is at risk. Together, they examine the Constitution's history relative to this current crisis, from its framing to its centuries-long success, including during some of the country's most turbulent and contentious times, and challenge us to let this great document work as it was designed-valuing political process over product. They hold our leaders accountable, calling on them to stop fanning the flames of division and to respect their institutional roles. In the final assessment, The Genius of America asks us to lean on the framers and their experience to secure our country's wellbeing.
