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Parliamentary Versus Presidential Government (Oxford Readings in Politics and Government)
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0198780443 |
Book Description
Parliamentary and presidential government, exemplified by the United Kingdom and most continental European countries on the one hand and the United States and Latin America on the other, are the two principal forms of democracy in the modern world. Their respective advantages and disadvantages have long been debated, at first mainly by British and American political observers, but with increasing frequency in other parts of the world too, especially in Latin America and Asia. The recent world-wide wave of democratization has intensified both the debate and its significance. This volume brings together the most important statements on the subject, by advocates and analysts from Montesquieu and Madison to Lipset and Linz. It also treats the merits of less frequently used democratic types, such as French-style semi-presidentialism, that may be regarded as intermediate forms between parliamentarism and presidentialism.
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On Reading the Constitution
Laurence H. Tribe , and Michael C. Dorf Manufacturer: Harvard University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0674636260 |
Book Description
Our Constitution speaks in general terms of "liberty" and "property," of the "privileges and immunities" of citizens, and of the "equal protection of the laws"--open-ended phrases that seem to invite readers to reflect in them their own visions and agendas. Yet, recognizing that the Constitution cannot be merely what its interpreters wish it to be, this volume's authors draw on literary and mathematical analogies to explore how the fundamental charter of American government should be construed today.
Customer Reviews:
Historically inacurate.......2001-09-06
Several premises are disturbing, for they point out a lack of Historical background of our founding. It suggests there are significant anomalies, for example if the Constitution gives the States a right to republican government and does not define republican government then a pliant construction and application of the text is suggested, this kind of logic is furthered in describing the general terms of the preamble as granting a broad license for inerpretation. The number of explanations offered by Madison on the subject of republican form of gvernment alone is sufficient to dispell the former, and with regard to the latter the topic was first adressed by Brutus, an Antifederlaist, and well responded to in Federalist Essay 41. As the Federalist Essays were a response to fears and criticisms of the then proposed Constitution, the ratification debates as well as the Federalist Essays does grant a significant view as to the consent of the governed 'On Reading the Constitution' seems to deny existed, or may presently exist.
The authors proceed to draw from confusions in the 'conservative' camp regarding constitutional specificity to further their point, quoting Rhenquist from a Texas Law Review article 1976, 'The framers of the Constitution wisely spoke in general language and left to succeeding generations the task of applying that language to the increasingly changing environment..' Alas poor Madison's efforts in describing the exertions of perspicuity found in federalist 37, having missed the attention of liberals as well as conservatives, has opened the door to a pliant construction of the Constitution. We were also cautioned by Madison to be wary of the changes of the meaning of words over time, Adams once described a church service as 'awful' he meant full of awe, this example is not solitary, and it's impact has not been fully examined.
I hold no doubt both Michael Dorf, and Laurence Tribe are concerned and virtuous citizens, as well as skilled and erudite practioners of Law, yet the book allows little insight into Constitutional Exegesis. Lincoln warned at Cooper Union to never supplant the logic of the fathers when we realize they understood the question better than we, it is time we examine what they knew, instead of focusing on the confusion that might exist.
Doesn't offer much original insight.......2001-03-17
It seemed to me that this book did little more than offer up a series of comparisons between law and the Constitution and other disciplines like literature and mathematics. While that may serve a useful purpose, it is of little value for those attempting to find a workable liberal theory through which to interpret the Constitution. And repeatedly throughout this book Tribe and Dorf explicity state that they do not have such a theory, or at least refuse to claim that their ideas are in any way paramount or final.
Nonetheless, it does offer up seveal solid critiques of conservative interpretations of the Constitution which might come in handy, or at least serve as a starting point for further investigation. I would also recommed that one read Antonin Scalia's "A Matter of Interpretation," which contains a rebuttal by Laurence Tribe similar to the arguments found here, but also has a very solidly philosophical criticism of Scalia's "textualist" theory by Ronald Dworkin.
Finally, and this has little to do with this book and more to do with jwhoeme's review below - jwhoeme seems to think that Tribe's chapter or arguments on how NOT to read the Constitution somehow presuppose that he knows how to read it, and I feel that that is a rather poor assumption on the part of jwhoeme. Just because one says they know how NOT to do something doesn't me they know how to do it. I know that bashing someone in the head with a rock is not how one performs brain surgery, but that doesn't mean I have any idea how to do it properly.
Thought Provoking Read.......1999-06-23
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Women and Race in Contemporary U.S. Writing: From Faulkner to Morrison (American Literature Readings in the Twenty-First Century)
Kelly Lynch Reames Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 1403972389 Release Date: 2007-01-09 |
Book Description
Much feminist writing of recent decades has addressed the difficulties of relating across racial differences. In Women and Race in Contemporary U.S. Writing: From Faulkner to Morrison, Kelly Reames looks to novels and autobiographies to discover how contemporary writers have imagined possibilities for relationships between African American and white women that overcome the stereotypical patterns of racism.
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Freedom's Law: The Moral Reading of the American Constitution
Ronald Dworkin Manufacturer: Harvard University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0674319281 |
Amazon.com
Freedom's Law is Dworkin's impassioned defense of free speech and conscience. The thread that ties these essays together is his criticism of strict historical interpretation of the Constitution, which holds that our modern-day understanding must be strictly limited to the concerns of the Constitution's framers, rather than the underlying principles embodied within. Divided into three parts, the book examines the soundness of Roe v. Wade, defends a broad reading of the First Amendment and attacks the nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.Book Description
Ronald Dworkin argues that Americans have been systematically misled about what their Constitution is, and how judges decide what it means. The Constitution, he observes, grants individual rights in extremely abstract terms. The First Amendment prohibits the passing of laws that "abridge the freedom of speech"; the Fifth Amendment insists on "due process of law"; and the Fourteenth Amendment demands "equal protection of the laws" for all persons. What does that abstract language mean when it is applied to the political controversies that divide Americans--about affirmative action and racial justice, abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, censorship, pornography, and homosexuality, for example? Judges, and ultimately the justices of the Supreme Court, must decide for everyone, and that gives them great power. How should they decide?
Dworkin defends a particular answer to that question, which he calls the moral reading of the Constitution. He argues that the Bill of Rights must be understood as setting out general moral principles about liberty and equality and dignity, and that private citizens, lawyers, and finally judges must interpret and apply those general principles by posing and trying to answer more concrete moral questions. Is freedom to choose abortion really a basic moral right and would curtailing that right be a deep injustice, for example? Why? In the detailed discussions of individual constitutional issues that form the bulk of the book, Dworkin shows that our judges do decide hard constitutional cases by posing and answering such concrete moral questions. Indeed he shows that that is the only way they can decide those cases.
But most judges--and most politicians and most law professors--pretend otherwise. They say that judges must never treat constitutional issues as moral issues because that would be undemocratic--it would mean that judges were substituting their own moral convictions for those of Congressmen and state legislators who had been elected by the people. So they insist that judges can, and should, decide in some more mechanical way which involves no fresh moral judgment on their part.
The result, Dworkin shows, has been great constitutional confusion. Is the premise at the core of this confusion really sound? Is the moral reading--the only reading of the American Constitution that makes sense--really undemocratic? In spirited and illuminating discussions both of the great constitutional cases of recent years, and of general constitutional principles, Dworkin argues, to the contrary, that the distinctly American version of government under principle, based on the moral reading of the Constitution, is in fact the best account of what democracy really is.
Customer Reviews:
Why the Supreme Court is Wrong.......2003-05-03
The book's strength is Dworkin's accessible writing style (which may stem from the popular press origins of most of these essays) and his tight analysis of several cutting edge issues--abortion, affirmative action, free speech, as well as some historically important battles--the Bork and Thomas nominations.
His bottom line is (although he does not say this explicitly) that the recent Supreme Court, abbeted by a series of Republican presidents, has begun a revolution in legal thinking which rejects the 200 year old liberal tradition of judicial interpretation, and in the process has substituted results based, conservative politics for any semblance of judicial reasoning.
The weakness of the book is that many examples and arguments are repeated between essays, covering the same ground in virtually the same words from different times.
A much easier read than "Taking Rights Seriously", although the latter clearly is a more complete exposition of Dworkin's philosophy.
For a counter argument, see any of Judge Posner's recent work, which explicitly takes on Dworkin's philosophy.
A Legal Classic.......2002-03-05
Old Ideas for Re-Discussion.......1998-05-31
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The Lamp of Experience: Whig History and the Intellectual Origins of the American Revolution
H. Trevor Colbourn Manufacturer: Liberty Fund ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0865971595 |
Customer Reviews:
How the Founders learned their politics.......2007-04-05
Ideas have consequences.......2006-01-17
Fascinating Study.......1999-09-10
Great explanation of the paradigm during American Revolution.......1999-04-21
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Just and Holy Principles: Latter-Day Saint Readings on America and the Constitution
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Custom Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 053601650X |
Customer Reviews:
Intriguing religious commentary on America/Constitution.......2003-01-06
I found this book to be very enlightening and extremely useful in my personal studies of the Constitution. A delightful intellectual feast, it gives the reader a complete view of the sort of religious overtones the Founding Fathers assumed the American people would intrinsically understand, but which have been lost to many. For Latter-Day Saints (lds.org), it is a wonderful feast of knowledge, shedding light on many lesser-known facts about the American continent, the Constitution, and everything which is related to these two subjects.
This has moved to the top of my list of ideological books that have a foundation in religion. I highly recommend it to anyone who has any interest in the Constitution and/or America.
The best thing about this book is that once you are finished reading it, you will feel as if an entire world of thought which was previously unknown to you has been exposed to the point that it cannot be hid from you any longer. It really has opened my eyes to truths which I had not supposed existed. It really broadens your perspective on the stated subjects.
All in all, highly recommended to anyone who bothered to click on the link to read this far.
Intriguing religious commentary on America/Constitution.......2003-01-06
I found this book to be very enlightening and extremely useful in my personal studies of the Constitution. A delightful intellectual feast, it gives the reader a complete view of the sort of religious overtones the Founding Fathers assumed the American people would intrinsically understand, but which have been lost to many. For Latter-Day Saints (lds.org), it is a wonderful feast of knowledge, shedding light on many lesser-known facts about the American continent, the Constitution, and everything which is related to these two subjects.
This has moved to the top of my list of ideological books that have a foundation in religion. I highly recommend it to anyone who has any interest in the Constitution and/or America.
The best thing about this book is that once you are finished reading it, you will feel as if an entire world of thought which was previously unknown to you has been exposed to the point that it cannot be hid from you any longer. It really has opened my eyes to truths which I had not supposed existed. It really broadens your perspective on the stated subjects.
All in all, highly recommended to anyone who bothered to click on the link to read this far.
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Declaracion de Independencia y Constitucion de los Estados Unidos de America
Thomas Jefferson Manufacturer: Cato Institute ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 1930865511 |
Book Description
Translated into Spanish, with the English text, this pocket edition of America's founding documents is a must for every American citizen.
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The Supreme Court and the Constitution: Readings in American Constitutional History
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0393954374 |
Customer Reviews:
A Book of Decisions.......2001-07-30
If this book interests you, then you might also consider "The Constitution and Religion", edited by Robert S. Alley. It also consists of the actual opinions in cases involving the first amendment and religion. For analysis of cases and biographies of Supreme Court justices consider buying "The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court."
This book is really intresting........1997-08-16
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Aids to the Study of European Governments: Brief Readings, Reprints of Constitutions, Chronologies, Diagrams, Questions, and Topics for Special Study (With References) (Prepared for Use in Government 1 at Harvard University)
Manufacturer: Harvard Cooperative Society, Cambridge ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000EWLT22 |
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The American Constitutional Experience- Selected Readings and Supreme Court Opinions
James A. Curry , Richard B. Riley , Richard M. Battistoni , and John Blakeman Manufacturer: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0757515622 |
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