Download or read book Political and Constitutional Reform Opens the Door written by Guy Powles and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gives an up-to-date account of Tonga's new political and constitutional regime, while offering insights into the thinking and decision-making that contributed to its development. The author, a constitutional lawyer with a long association with Tonga, reviews the main constitutional reforms of 2009-10, together with subsequent developments during three years of the term of the first elected government. After a century of stable government by a royal dynasty under one of the world's oldest living constitutions, the need for change became apparent. Agents for change included pro-democracy activists, the late King Tupou V and Prime Minister Sevele, leading to the introduction of reforms that dramatically opened the door to the development of a Tongan model of parliamentary democracy. This publication illustrates the importance of becoming familiar with the detail of a Constitution that charts key institutions such as the Monarch, the Cabinet, the Legislative Assembly and the Judiciary, together with the relationships between each. Appended to the book is the only accessible consolidation of the Constitution with its changes. The book explores many areas of reform that require clear understanding of the Constitution. These include the extent of the King's remaining powers, the Noble class who continue to exercise key constitutional roles and control of land, the concept of un-elected Ministers, motions of no-confidence, appointment and independence of the judiciary - to name only some. Above all, attention is drawn to the significance of Tongan values that guide thinking and decision-making throughout.
Download or read book Constitutional Reform and Effective Government written by James L. Sundquist and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years the public has become increasingly disillusioned and cynical about its governmental institutions. In the face of alarming problems-most notably the $400 billion budget deficit-the government seems deadlocked, reduced to partisan posturing and bickering, with the president and Congress blaming each other for failure. And neither party can be held accountable. The public tendency is to blame individual leaders- or politicians as a class-but an insistent and growing number of experienced statesmen and political scientists believe that much of the difficulty can be traced to the governmental structure itself, designed in the eighteenth century and essentially unchanged since then. Is that inherited constitutional system adequate to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, or has the time come for fundamental change? Should we adopt an electoral system that encourages unified control of the presidency, the Senate and the House? Lengthen terms of office? Limit congressional terms? Abolish or modify the electoral college? Introduce a mechanism for calling special elections? Permit legislators to hold executive offices? Redistribute the balance of powers within the governmental system? In this revised edition of his highly acclaimed 1986 volume, James Sundquist reviews the origins and rationale of the constitutional structure and the current debate about whether reform is needed, then raises practical questions about what changes might work best if a consensus should emerge that the national government is too prone to stalemate to meet its responsibilities. Analyzing the main proposals advanced to adapt the Constitution to current conditions, he attempts to separate the workable ideas from the unworkable, the effective from the ineffective, the possibly feasible from the wholly infeasible, and finally arrives at a set of recommendations of his own.
Download or read book The Constitution Under Pressure written by Marcia L. Whicker and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1987-08-26 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is a comprehensive account of the U.S. Constitution--including its evolution and its impact on shaping American government and political representation. In eight fact-filled chapters, the authors carefully explore the Constitution's role. Those involved in the study of American More ... government, constitutional law, judicial behavior, legislative behavior, or politics will find this critical examination systematic, thorough, and thought-provoking.
Download or read book Constitutional Inequality written by Gilbert Yale Steiner and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 1985 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the history of the Equal Rights Amendment, explains why it failed to pass, and assesses its chances for future passage.
Download or read book Reinventing Britain written by Andrew McDonald and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007-10-30 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "First [originally] published in Great Britain in 2007 by Politico's Publishing ..."--Title page verso.
Download or read book The Grasping Hand written by Ilya Somin and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-11-29 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that the city of New London, Connecticut, could condemn fifteen residential properties in order to transfer them to a new private owner. Although the Fifth Amendment only permits the taking of private property for “public use,” the Court ruled that the transfer of condemned land to private parties for “economic development” is permitted by the Constitution—even if the government cannot prove that the expected development will ever actually happen. The Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London empowered the grasping hand of the state at the expense of the invisible hand of the market. In this detailed study of one of the most controversial Supreme Court cases in modern times, Ilya Somin argues that Kelo was a grave error. Economic development and “blight” condemnations are unconstitutional under both originalist and most “living constitution” theories of legal interpretation. They also victimize the poor and the politically weak for the benefit of powerful interest groups and often destroy more economic value than they create. Kelo itself exemplifies these patterns. The residents targeted for condemnation lacked the influence needed to combat the formidable government and corporate interests arrayed against them. Moreover, the city’s poorly conceived development plan ultimately failed: the condemned land lies empty to this day, occupied only by feral cats. The Supreme Court’s unpopular ruling triggered an unprecedented political reaction, with forty-five states passing new laws intended to limit the use of eminent domain. But many of the new laws impose few or no genuine constraints on takings. The Kelo backlash led to significant progress, but not nearly as much as it may have seemed. Despite its outcome, the closely divided 5-4 ruling shattered what many believed to be a consensus that virtually any condemnation qualifies as a public use under the Fifth Amendment. It also showed that there is widespread public opposition to eminent domain abuse. With controversy over takings sure to continue, The Grasping Hand offers the first book-length analysis of Kelo by a legal scholar, alongside a broader history of the dispute over public use and eminent domain and an evaluation of options for reform.
Download or read book Democracy and Equality written by Geoffrey R. Stone and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020-01-06 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1953 to 1969, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren brought about many of the proudest achievements of American constitutional law. The Warren declared racial segregation and laws forbidding interracial marriage to be unconstitutional; it expanded the right of citizens to criticize public officials; it held school prayer unconstitutional; and it ruled that people accused of a crime must be given a lawyer even if they can't afford one. Yet, despite those and other achievements, conservative critics have fiercely accused the justices of the Warren Court of abusing their authority by supposedly imposing their own opinions on the nation. As the eminent legal scholars Geoffrey R. Stone and David A. Strauss demonstrate in Democracy and Equality, the Warren Court's approach to the Constitution was consistent with the most basic values of our Constitution and with the most fundamental responsibilities of our judiciary. Stone and Strauss describe the Warren Court's extraordinary achievements by reviewing its jurisprudence across a range of issues addressing our nation's commitment to the values of democracy and equality. In each chapter, they tell the story of a critical decision, exploring the historical and legal context of each case, the Court's reasoning, and how the justices of the Warren Court fulfilled the Court's most important responsibilities. This powerfully argued evaluation of the Warren Court's legacy, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of the Warren Court, both celebrates and defends the Warren Court's achievements against almost sixty-five years of unrelenting and unwarranted attacks by conservatives. It demonstrates not only why the Warren Court's approach to constitutional interpretation was correct and admirable, but also why the approach of the Warren Court was far superior to that of the increasingly conservative justices who have dominated the Supreme Court over the past half-century.
Download or read book Development Centre Studies The Economics and Politics of Transition to an Open Market Economy Colombia written by Edwards Sebastian and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2001-09-12 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explains how various forces related to each other and how the conflicts were resolved - or not in Colombia's transtion to an open economy.
Download or read book The Paradox of Constitutionalism written by Martin Loughlin and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In modern political communities ultimate authority is often thought to reside with 'the people'. This book examines how constitutions act as a delegation of power from 'the people' to expert institutions, and looks at the attendant problems of maintaining the legitimacy of these constitutional arrangements.
Download or read book Constitutional Change in the Contemporary Socialist World written by Ngoc Son Bui and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-24 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the collapse of the Soviet bloc, there are only five socialist or communist countries left in the world – China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam – which constitute about one-quarter of the world’s population. Yet, there is little scholarship on their constitutions. These countries have seen varying socioeconomic changes in the decades since 1991, which have led in turn to constitutional changes. This book will investigate, from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, how and why the constitutional systems in these five countries have changed in the last three decades. The book then breaks the constitutional changes down into four questions: what are the substantive contents of constitutional change, what are the functions, what are the mechanisms, and what are the driving forces? These questions form a framework to process the changes the five countries have gone through, such as making new constitutions, amending current ones, introducing more rights, allowing citizens to engage in changes, enacting legislation, and defining the constitutional authority of the three state branches and their relationship with the Communist Party. While all five countries have adapted their constitutional systems, the degree, mechanisms, and influential factors are not identical and present considerable variations. This book examines and explores these differences and how they developed. Constitutional Change in the Contemporary Socialist World offers a comprehensive and holistic view of an understudied and overlooked area of constitutional law, essential for anyone studying or working in law, politics, or policy.
Download or read book The Cycles of Constitutional Time written by Jack M. Balkin and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "America's constitutional system evolves through the interplay between three cycles: the rise and fall of dominant political parties, the waxing and waning of political polarization, and alternating episodes of constitutional rot and constitutional renewal. America's politics seems especially fraught today because we are nearing the end of the Republican Party's long political dominance, at the height of a long cycle of political polarization, and suffering from an advanced case of "constitutional rot." Constitutional rot is the historical process through which republics become increasingly less representative and less devoted to the common good. Caused by increasing economic inequality and loss of trust, constitutional rot seriously threatens the constitutional system. But America has been through these cycles before, and will get through them again. America is in a Second Gilded Age slowly moving toward a second Progressive Era, during which polarization will eventually recede. The same cycles shape the work of the federal courts and theories about constitutional interpretation. They explain why political parties have switched sides on judicial review not once but twice in the twentieth century. Polarization and constitutional rot alter the political supports for judicial review, make fights over judicial appointments especially bitter, and encourage constitutional hardball. The Constitution ordinarily relies on the judiciary to protect democracy and to prevent political corruption and self-entrenching behavior. But when constitutional rot is advanced, the Supreme Court is likely to be ineffective and may even make matters worse. Courts cannot save the country from constitutional rot; only political mobilization can"--
Download or read book Constitution Making under UN Auspices written by Vijayashri Sripati and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-16 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1949, United Nations Constitutional Assistance (UNCA) was conceived to promote the Western liberal constitution. This was colonial trusteeship. However, in 1960, as a step towards decolonization, the United Nations General Assembly rejected internationalized constitution-making, and, by extension, UNCA. All colonies acquired the right to draft their own constitutions without any international assistance. Nonetheless, in the same year, UNCA was revived and since then it has helped over 40 developing sovereign states to adopt the Western liberal constitution, for the aims of building peace, preventing conflict, and promoting good governance in these independent states. This book scrutinizes UNCA and its off-shoot, UN/International Territorial Administration (ITA), including their historical origins and revival from 1960 to 2019. Sripati argues that although the United Nations (UN) uses UNCA to help developing sovereign states secure debt relief, it undertakes UNCA to ‘modernize’ them with a view to ‘strengthen’ their supposedly weakened sovereignty. By doing so, the UN is seeking these states’ adoption of a Western liberal-style constitution, thus violating their right to self-determination. The book shows how UNCA sires and guides UN (legislative) assistance in all state-sectors: security, judicial, electoral, commercial, parliamentary, public administration, and criminal. Irrespective of UNCA’s benevolent motivations, such intrusive interventions impose the old forms of domination and perpetuate global inequality.
Download or read book Just How Stupid Are We written by Rick Shenkman and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-07 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fifty percent of Americans can name four characters from aaC--AThe Simpsons, aaC--Au but only two out of five can name all three branches of the federal government. No more than one in seven can find Iraq on a map. Just how stupid are we? Pretty stupid. In Just How Stupid Are We?, best-selling author Rick Shenkman takes aim at our great national piety: the wisdom of the American people. American democracy is as direct as it's ever beenaaC--but voters are misusing, abusing, and abdicating their political power. At once a powerful indictment of voter apathy and political indifference, Just How Stupid Are We? also provides concrete proposals for reforming our institutionsaaC--the government, the media, civic organizations, political partiesaaC--to make them work better for the American people. But first, Shenkman argues, we must reform ourselves
Download or read book The Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton and published by Read Books Ltd. This book was released on 2018-08-20 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Classic Books Library presents this brand new edition of “The Federalist Papers”, a collection of separate essays and articles compiled in 1788 by Alexander Hamilton. Following the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, the governing doctrines and policies of the States lacked cohesion. “The Federalist”, as it was previously known, was constructed by American statesman Alexander Hamilton, and was intended to catalyse the ratification of the United States Constitution. Hamilton recruited fellow statesmen James Madison Jr., and John Jay to write papers for the compendium, and the three are known as some of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Alexander Hamilton (c. 1755–1804) was an American lawyer, journalist and highly influential government official. He also served as a Senior Officer in the Army between 1799-1800 and founded the Federalist Party, the system that governed the nation’s finances. His contributions to the Constitution and leadership made a significant and lasting impact on the early development of the nation of the United States.
Download or read book Policy Change Courts and the Canadian Constitution written by Emmett Macfarlane and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Policy Change, Courts, and the Canadian Constitution aims to further our understanding of judicial policy impact and the role of the courts in shaping policy change. Bringing together a group of political scientists and legal scholars, this volume delves into a diverse set of policy areas, including health care issues, the regulation of elections, criminal justice policy, minority language education, citizenship, refugee policy, human rights legislation, and Indigenous policy. While much of the public law and judicial politics literatures focus on the impact of the constitution and the judicial role, scholarship on courts that makes policy change its central lens of analysis is surprisingly rare. Multidisciplinary in its approach to examining policy issues, this book focuses on specific cases or policy issues through a wide-ranging set of approaches, including the use of interview data, policy analysis, historical and interpretive analysis, and jurisprudential analysis.
Download or read book Behind Closed Doors written by Yan Campagnolo and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2021-10-15 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an era where government transparency and accountability are considered fundamental values, does Cabinet secrecy still have a place? Behind Closed Doors is the first comprehensive exploration of the legal and political rules protecting the confidentiality of collective decision-making at the highest executive level of the Canadian state. Yan Campagnolo defends Cabinet secrecy as essential to the proper functioning of responsible government while criticizing its associated statutory provisions as excessively broad and possibly unconstitutional. Comparing Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, this meticulous work proposes feasible, specific reforms that would achieve a better balance between transparency and confidentiality.
Download or read book Participatory Constitutional Change written by Xenophon Contiades and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the recent trend of enhancing the role of the people in constitutional change. It traces the reasons underlying this tendency, the new ways in which it takes form, the possibilities of success and failure of such ventures as well as the risks and benefits it carries. To do so, it examines the theoretical aspects of public participation in constitutional decision-making, offers an analysis of the benefits gained and the problems encountered in countries with long-standing experience in the practice of constitutional referendums, discusses the recent innovative constitution-making processes employed in Iceland and Ireland in the post financial crisis context and probes the use of public participation in the EU context. New modes of deliberation are juxtaposed to traditional direct-democratic processes, while the reasons behind this re-emergence of public involvement narratives are discussed from the aspect of comparative constitutional design. The synthetic chapter offers an overview of the emerging normative and comparative issues and provides a holistic approach of the role of the people in constitutional change in an attempt to answer when, where and how this role may be successfully enhanced. The work consists of material specifically written for this volume, and authored by prominent constitutional scholars and experts in public participation and deliberative processes.
