Constitutional Law: Essay and Multiple-choice Questions and Answers (Siegel's)

Book Description

A scientific study of the political and economic factors influencing democratic decision making

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating book.......2007-04-28

This is truly a fascinating book. Few books have had a greater influence on my political thought. The initial assumptions have a libertarian bent, but the construction of the argument from there is brilliant. As for an overview of the book, I feel that Mr. Templeman's review below was just about perfect.

High praise with a grain of salt.......2007-01-07

The main contribution of this pathbreaking book is by providing a rationale for the "counter-majoritarian difficulty": Why does society tolerate the "dead hand" of the constitutional framers to limit the freedom of choice of living individuals who wish to undo the constitution? The authors muse that in some previous stage, where individuals cannot identify their future preferences, each individual is threatened by two kinds of risk: The first is that others will attempt to take something that belongs to her and achieve their purpose by popular vote. From this prespective each individual desires that such a popular vote will not be made effectual unless supported by the largest number of participants. The second concern is that individuals might wish, in the future, to appropriate something that belongs to others, and may be thwarted by a popular vote, inimical to their cause. From this second perspective they wish to institute a rule that allows the appropriation to take place with only a minimal number of supportets. Each one of these two perils can be represented by a cost function, where the cost is a function of the number of voters necessary to carry the proposed measure; adding up the two functions generates an aggregate cost schedule for all rational players. The minimum of the aggregate function indicates the optimal number of individuals, as a portion of the voting population, necessary for carrying the proposed measure. If this number is greater than 50% of the population, this fact justifies the entrenchment of entitlements in a constitution. The grain of salt that must be added to this analysis is that the authors do not provide an explanation why that number might be greater than 50% of the population, or what might be the conditions that must be satisfied for the generation of that number.

Foundation for Studying Political Economy.......2006-01-28

A few other reviews have dismissed this book somehow as sloppy and even halarious. I would like to just make sure that the credibility of the work put forth by Buchanan and Tullock is realized. This book, along with a number of other great accomplishments, won James Buchanan a Nobel Prize in economics. To view this work as a right wing rationalization is way off base, study the works of Buchanan and Tullock and you will realize that statement is completely ridiculous.

Classic work in economics and political organization.......2005-03-29

The Calculus of Consent, written by James M. Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, is one of the founding publications of what has since become known as the subdiscipline of public choice, which is the application of tools of economic analysis to the domain of political decision making. In theory, political decisions are made by elected officials in their pursuit of the "general interest" or the "common good", however defined. In reality, however, political decisions reflect the outcome of the workings of a number of interested parties, which includes voters, politicians, career government officials (bureaucrats), special-interest groups, lobbyists, etc., each of whom have their own agendas and interests. When someone appeals to the public interest while making a political argument, more often than not the underlying motive is a matter of self-interest (e.g. teachers' unions angling for larger teacher salaries under the pretext of improving public education). Public choice theory does not mean to be critical or cynical about this. Instead, it is merely intended to be descriptive: that's simply the way the political decision-making process works, and we need to understand this first before we try and improve the world through politics. For his central role in the development of public choice theory, professor Buchanan would go on to earn the 1986 Nobel prize in economics.

The book's main contribution lies in its development of the analysis of political behavior, particularly so-called logrolling (i.e. vote-trading, or political exchange). The Founding Fathers set up our political system in order for the general interest to be served rather than interests that only benefit specific groups at the expense of the rest of the population. But elected officials have learned to circumvent that intent by happily trading their vote on issues on which they don't care one way or the other in exchange for votes on issues about which they do care. All members of the legislature end up voting for each other's pet projects, which all get enacted at taxpayers' expense.

The authors propose that one solution would be to distinguish between legislative rules and constitutional rules. Legislative (statutory) rules may be adopted by simple majority coalitions pursuing their own interests. Constitutional rules, on the other hand, are supposed to be decided on without regard for short-term individual consequences ("what is right in the long run?" instead of "what's good for me today?"). Legislative rules are substantive, constitutional rules are procedural. Constitutional rules are meant to restrict abuse of the legislative process by majority coalitions. The difference between legislative and constitutional rules is perhaps somewhat idealistic. After all, what's to prevent people from voting for or against constitutional rules based on their short-term interest. In theory, people are thought to realize that "what's right" will also benefit them, as everyone else will be bound by the same rules, but in practice it doesn't always quite work that way (e.g. people may be aware that a constitutional balanced budget amendment is the morally right thing to do to prevent saddling their descendants with public debt, but as of yet no such amendment has been enacted). Still, the legislative-constitutional distinction is at least helpful as an analytical device.

As the authors acknowledge, in real life things aren't always quite as black-and-white as they have here been described. Sometimes people--yes, even some politicians--vote according to their conscience rather than according to their own self-interest. But the insights and analysis offered by the book and by public-choice theory more often than not do apply. The book is highly persuasive in demonstrating that democracy's simple-majority voting rule (50 percent plus one vote) does not inherently lead to superior decisions. For example, it offers a convincing explanation for why even in majoritarian democracy, taxes and government spending, whether on public services or on redistribution, are clearly "too large", i.e. larger than the vast majority of Americans would agree to if they were to redesign and rebuild government all over again from scratch today.

Stylistically, the book is light on math and the authors have an elegant writing style. But it is somewhat on the academic side and rather heavy on preliminaries. More comprehensive and more easily digestible treatments of issues of political decision making in a democratic context do exist, but even now, some four decades after its initial publication, the book is still considered a classic work in the history of economics and political organization. Its central section is "a simple logrolling model" (pp. 136-142 in the Buchanan Collected Works edition).

Mixed Feelings.......2005-02-14

The book contains exposition of important insights. Constitutional rules of decision produce political parties as a byproduct. Representative legislatures reduce the cost of collective decision processes. Logrolling is trade in the political context, and so the participants in logrolling benefit from it. When decision authority arises fundamentally from individuals, logrolling will occur. In liberal democracies, the government will tax all persons at a fairly high rate, and the tax law will stipulate numerous special exceptions granting lower rates or exemptions.

On the other hand, the book is difficult to read. The authors mercifully avoid the mathematics that frequently obscures economic thought and creates a facade of ersatz logic. However, wading through the prose is a hard slog, tending to make the concepts unreachable.

We can't be hard on the authors, though. That they articulated the ideas at all is more than the entirety of humanity did in the preceding millenia.

Still one hopes some determined disciple will lucidly render the ideas. Both opportunity and need exist for the story better told.

Law and Public Choice: A Critical Introduction

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public interest vs private interest
Lacks Aim

Law and Public Choice: A Critical Introduction
Philip P. Frickey , and Daniel A. Farber
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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The Strategic Constitution

ASIN: 0226238032

Book Description

In Law and Public Choice, Daniel Farber and Philip Frickey present a remarkably rich
and accessible introduction to the driving principles of public choice. In this, the first
systematic look at the implications of social choice for legal doctrine, Farber and Frickey
carefully review both the empirical and theoretical literature about interest group influence and provide a nonmathematical introduction to formal models of legislative action. Ideal for course use, this volume offers a balanced and perceptive analysis and critique of an approach which, within limits, can illuminate the dynamics of government decision-making.

“Law and Public Choice is a most valuable contribution to the burgeoning literature. It
should be of great interest to lawyers, political scientists, and all others interested in issues at the intersection of government and law.”—Cass R. Sunstein, University of Chicago Law
School

Customer Reviews:

public interest vs private interest.......2006-07-19

Law and Public Choice aims to be an introduction to economic models of rational behavior to explain the workings of political institutions in modern democracies. The book summarizes the strand of research in public and collective choice (or positive political theory, as American political scientists would rather say), that is, the fact that democracies require people to organize themselves to decide by voting how to allocate resources to public goods. Of course, the task is much more complicate than individuals have to face when to decide whether to buy cornflakes or Nasdaq stocks. Thus understood, the book leaves out the law and economics, and the comparative law and economics traditions. The book was released in 1991 and is now a little outdated and focuses too much on the American system. It is not a comprehensive text. For that the reader should consider Muller's Public Choice III or Cooter's Strategic Constitution, which are updated, comprehensive and devoted to students.

Despite its caveats, this book is well written and engaging.

Lacks Aim.......2003-07-27

This book purports to be a introduction to public choice theory as it interacts with the law. Public choice theory is a framework that analyzes the behavior of public structures under the assumption that all relevant actors try to maximize their self-interest. This book uses public choice theory to analyze (i.) interest groups, (ii.) the democratic process, (iii.) economic regulation, (iv.) statutory interpretation and (v.) public law.

While readable and engaging, Farber and Frickey's text suffers from several defects. The defects are representative of its lacking as an introductory text. First, while this book packs a lot of information into roughly 150 pages, it is not comprehensive by any stretch of the imagination. Topics in areas such as torts, and law and economics are saliently missing.

Second, this book aims to be a "critical introduction," which means that it is a biased introduction. Clear and intentional bias defeats the purpose of an introductory text, which is presumably geared towards promoting understanding rather than agenda. The authors obviously have qualms with public choice theory's widespread application in libertarian thought, and thus they try argue against mainstream public choice arguments for the textualist readings of statutes, criticism of democracy and the inefficiency of economic regulation. What irked me about this was not the criticisms per se, but the excessive straw-man-building employed by the authors. The political nature of this book is quite simply: to make the reader realize that mainstream public choice theorists' skepticism of governmental inefficiency is badly misguided, if not false.

Thus, this book lacks comprehensiveness, objectivity, and an introductory feel. With that said, however, I learned quite a bit once I got past the political posturing. Lucidly written, the book demonstrates public choice theory's flexibility in handling complicated theoretical issues in political science and law. This book might serve a better purpose as a complement to a more general introduction to public choice theory.

Questions & Answers: Constitutional Law: Multiple Choice and Short Answer Questions and Answers
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Questions & Answers: Constitutional Law: Multiple Choice and Short Answer Questions and Answers
Paul E. McGreal
Manufacturer: LexisNexis
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Binding: Hardcover
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Constitutional Choices
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The most billiant legal mind in America

How Tribe's Sacrifice Weakened the Constitution

Constitutional Choices
Laurence H. Tribe
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
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Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Constitutional Choices illuminates the world 0f scholarship and advocacy uniquely combined by Laurence Tribe, one of the nation's leading professors of constitutional law and most successful practitioners before the Supreme Court. In his new hook, Tribe boldly moves beyond the seemingly endless debate over which judicial approaches to enforcing the Constitution are "legitimate" and which are not. Arguing that all claims to legitimacy must remain suspect, Tribe focuses instead on the choices that must nonetheless be made in resolving actual constitutional controversies. To do so, he examines problems as diverse as interstate banking, gender discrimination, church subsidies, the constitutional amendment process, the war powers of the President, and First Amendment protection of American Nazis.

Challenging the ruling premises underlying many 0f the Supreme Court's positions on fundamental issues of government authority and individual rights, Tribe shows how the Court is increasingly coming to resemble a judicial Office of Management and Budget, straining constitutional discourse through a managerial sieve and defending its constitutional rulings by "balancing'' what it counts as "costs" against what it deems benefits?' Tribe explains how the Court's "Calculus" systematically excludes basic concerns about the distribution of wealth and power and conceals fundamental choices about the American polity. Calling for a more candid confrontation of those choices and of the principles and perspectives they reflect, Tribe exposes what has gone wrong and suggests how the Court can begin to reclaim the historic role entrusted to it by the Constitution.

Customer Reviews:

The most billiant legal mind in America.......2006-02-16

Laurence Tribe understands the constitution as well as any man alive. His work and reputation will live long after he's gone. This is worth reading.

How Tribe's Sacrifice Weakened the Constitution.......2000-01-12

Laurence Tribe sacrificed an almost sure nomination to the Supreme Court by lending his academic credentials to the attack on Robert Bork's nomination to the Court. He succeeded in keeping Bork off the Court, but in doing so, was removed from consideration for a seat himself. Ironically, it is not the hapless Republicans who have kept him from a nomination: it is common knowledge in Washington that the Democrats themselves have dropped him for the simple reason that one does not appoint a hitman to high court.

This is tragic, because reading Laurence Tribe side by side with Bork makes it clear what America lost when they both were denied a position on the Court. Both men are brilliant. Both are flawed. Together, each of them supplies the ingredients the other one lacks. Tribe, with his aggressive role for the Court, tends to disregard the fact that we live in a democracy, while Bork gives excessive deference to tradition and popular will. Together, they would have balanced each other out, providing thesis and antithesis at an extremely sophisticated level. The country would have benefitted. Instead, we have to suffer Justices Souter and Breyer, living examples of the Peter Principle in action. What hath Tribe wrought?

Tribe's work, like that of Bork, really deserves three stars, but I have demoted him because of the McCarthyite tactics of Tribe and his allies in defeating Bork, tactics which included breaking into the video store Judge Bork used in order to find dirt against him (unfortunately for them, Bork's tastes ran to opera, symphonies and classic Hollywood fare of the 30s and 40s). Perhaps the Tribes and Borks of the future will face a less rabid political process and the Supreme Court will have a place for them both. In the meanwhile, read Bork and Tribe together and try to imagine what a splendid place the Supreme Court could have been.

Siegel's Constitutional Law: Essay and Multiple-Choice Questions & Answers
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Siegel's Constitutional Law: Essay and Multiple-Choice Questions & Answers
Lazar Emanuel
Manufacturer: Aspen Law & Business
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Deliberation and Decision: Economics, Constitutional Theory and Deliberative Democracy (Law, Ethics and Economics)
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Deliberation and Decision: Economics, Constitutional Theory and Deliberative Democracy (Law, Ethics and Economics)

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Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice
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Put on your thinking caps!

The case against abortion

Outstanding Contribution to Abortion Debate

Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice
Francis J. Beckwith
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Book Description

Defending Life is the most comprehensive defense of the prolife position on abortion ever published. It is sophisticated, but still accessible to the ordinary citizen. Without high-pitched rhetoric or appeals to religion, the author offers a careful and respectful case for why the prolife view of human life is correct. He responds to the strongest prochoice arguments found in law, science, philosophy, politics, and the media. He explains and critiques Roe v. Wade, and he explains why virtually all the popular prochoice arguments fail. There is simply nothing like this book.

Customer Reviews:

Put on your thinking caps!.......2007-09-30

My undergraduate education was in engineering and I work in electronics (I'm what you might call a "ones and zeros" kind of guy.) So, I am pretty far from being a philosopher or a lawyer - but I do work with logic every day. And Dr. Beckwith's "circuit analysis," trouble-shooting, and reasoning on this incredibly important issue - pass the logic test. ;)

I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in the abortion debate.

For people who are inclined towards the "Pro Abortion Choice" perspective - here is what you are up against (intellectually speaking.) You should seriously consider reading this book to flesh out your position(s) and arguments for defending abortion choice. And be prepared to have your reasons for being "Pro Abortion Choice" put to the test!

For people more inclined to be "Pro Life" - this book will no doubt help you improve your ability to articulate and defend your position. It will also (more than likely) give you a good understanding of all the key points related to the abortion issue, as well as a equipping you with an education in the best arguments from the "Pro Abortion Choice" camp.

In either case, if you are under the assumption that being "Pro Life" is a "religious" perspective - you will definitely be set straight. Don't expect to encounter a religious or theological perspective in this book. Agnostics, Atheists, and Theists all have equal playing field here.

I came away from this book much better informed about the abortion debate, much more grounded in my "Pro Life" perspective, and much more motivated to help raise awareness about what abortion really is.

And I came away feeling like I made a new friend in Francis Beckwith.

The case against abortion.......2007-09-27

This is certainly the newest pro-life work to appear, and arguably among the best. It not only lays out the legal, rational, moral and philosophical case against abortion choice, but it more broadly makes the case for human equality and the sanctity of life.

Beckwith is an American professor of law and philosophy who has written extensively on these issues previously. This volume brings together years of thinking and debating on this contentious issue. It is an invaluable resource for all those wishing to stand up for human life at all stages of development, and to counter the arguments of the pro-choice brigade.

The first third of the book paints with broad brush strokes, examining moral reasoning, legal considerations, and political dimensions of the abortion debate.

The second third of the book looks more closely at the abortion debate per se, looking at the science, the morality and the arguments involved in the debate about abortion.

The final third of the book extends these considerations to recent developments in bioethics, including cloning and stem cell research.

The second and longest section of this book does many things, including carefully dismantling the various arguments put forward by the pro-abortion camp. All the leading pro-abortion thinkers, such as Thompson, Boonin, Stretton, and Dworkin are taken on, with their positions carefully assessed and interacted with.

On the broader issue of human equality, Beckwith argues for the substance view which states that a human being "is intrinsically valuable because of the sort of thing it is and the human being remains that sort of thing as long as it exists". That is, an individual "maintains absolute identity through time while it grows, develops, and undergoes numerous changes".

Various functions and capacities, whether fully realised or utilised do not constitute a person. Thus a human being is never a potential person, but is always a person at different stages of development, whether potential properties and capacities are actualised or not.

This view stand in stark contrast to the utilitarian and functionalist views held by most pro-abortionists. They argue that personhood is not inherent or intrinsic, but based on certain capacities and functions, be it consciousness, sentience, self-awareness, the ability to reason, and so on.

As to the specifics of the abortion debate, Beckwith responds to the numerous objections raised by pro-abortionists over the years. For example, consider the argument often heard, involving the hard cases of rape and incest. These are certainly tragic events, but in no way can they be used to justify an abortion.

First, such cases are extremely rare, making up just a tiny fraction of all abortions. Second, to argue for the legalisation of abortion because of these extreme cases would be similar to arguing that we eliminate traffic laws because in some rare cases they need to be violated, as in rushing a loved one to hospital.

Third, it simply begs the question by assuming the unborn child is not fully human. Fifth, to justify abortion in these circumstances is to argue that it is acceptable to forfeit a life for the alleged benefit of another. But a basic ethical intuition argues that we may not kill one person to possibly save another. John may desperately need a vital organ of Mary to stay alive, but he has no right to demand it, especially if it entails killing her in the process.

The more recent, and difficult, cases of embryo research, human cloning and stem cell therapies are also examined, looking at the various justifications given for them, and their pro-life responses. Similar issues arise here concerning the nature of personhood and the inviolability of life.

Beckwith closes by laying out his case as it has been argued throughout: the unborn are full members of the human community; it is wrong to kill members of that community; abortion kills the unborn entity; therefore abortion is morally wrong.

The three hundred pages of tightly-knit argumentation and logical-constructed reasoning take on nearly all the major justifications for abortion. All are found wanting - morally, legally, and philosophically. Beckwith is to be praised for assembling in one volume some of the best pro-life argumentation around.

Outstanding Contribution to Abortion Debate.......2007-09-21

Beckwith's primary purpose is to provide a thorough defense of the pro-life position and its grounding in the "substance view" of human persons--a view he claims best explains human equality. He writes: "This book is, in a sense, then, not really a book about abortion, but rather, a book about human equality." Frank contends that the larger metaphysical question--who are we?--should be answered by enlarging our definition of the human family to include the unborn. His secondary purpose is to examine the relationship between abortion and law, politics, and public discourse.

The pro-life argument Frank defends can be outlined as follows:

1. The unborn entity, from the moment of conception, is a full-fledged member of the human community.
2. It is prima facie morally wrong to kill any member of that community.
3. Every successful abortion kills an unborn entity, a full-fledged member of the human community.
4. Therefore, every successful abortion is prima facie morally wrong.

The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 deals with moral reasoning, the law, and politics. Part 2 is the core of Frank's case for the pro-life view, which includes both the scientific and philosophic considerations. Part 3 takes on cloning and embryonic stem-cell research.

The thrust of the text is philosophical and jurisprudential rather than religious. In each case, the arguments presented pass the test of public reason. That's not because he thinks theology doesn't count as real knowledge (indeed, he argues elsewhere it does). Rather, he's cutting-off secular critics who unjustly dismiss pro-life arguments with the wand of "faith"--which they define as non-rational and subjective.

Frank sums up the current controversy this way: "At the end of the day, the abortion debate is about who and what we are and whether we can know it."

Architects of Political Change: Constitutional Quandaries and Social Choice Theory (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)

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Architects of Political Change: Constitutional Quandaries and Social Choice Theory (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)
Norman Schofield
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Book Description

This work offers a set of extended interpretations of Madison’s argument in Federalist X of 1787, using ideas from social choice theory and from the work of Douglass North, Mancur Olson, and William Riker. Its focus is not on rational choice theory itself, but on the use of this theory as a heuristic device to better understand democratic institutions. The treatment adapts a formal model of elections to consider rapid constitutional change at periods when societies face quandaries. The topics explored in the book include Britain’s reorganization of its fiscal system in the eighteenth century to prosecute its wars with France; the Colonies’ decision to declare independence in 1776; Madison’s argument about the ‘probability of fit choice’ during the Ratification period of 1787-88; the argument between Hamilton and Jefferson in 1798–1800 over the long run organization of the US economy and the election of Lincoln in 1860.

Pro-Choice and Anti-Abortion: Constitutional Theory and Public Policy

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Pro-Choice and Anti-Abortion: Constitutional Theory and Public Policy
James R. Bowers
Manufacturer: Praeger Paperback
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ASIN: 0275959643

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Bowers argues that, when correctly interpreted and applied, the Constitution and the theory of liberty on which it is based require government to reject the conventional pro-choice and anti-abortion perspectives as too extreme and incomplete. Instead, this book sets forth a position that government is constitutionally obligated to approach abortion policy from a middle perspective. Relying on a jurisprudence of original theory, Pro-Choice and Anti-Abortion forcefully asserts that government is constitutionally constrained to formulate abortion policy that is at once pro-choice and anti-abortion. In so arguing, this book walks readers through this constitutionally mandated middle position by introducing them to the liberal teachings of John Locke that were so influential to the framers of the Constitution and by applying this political theory to the major issues of the abortion controversy--including the individual liberty interest in the abortion decision, minors and abortions, the liberty interest of the fetal-being, and the Freedom of Choice Act.

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