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Full-Text Articles in Law
The State Of Our Republic: State Constitutions’ Role In Creating A More Perfect Union, Caroline Bullock
The State Of Our Republic: State Constitutions’ Role In Creating A More Perfect Union, Caroline Bullock
CMC Senior Theses
This thesis situates state constitutionalism in the modern context of federal constitutional paralysis. By tracing patterns of state constitutional development, we find that states were always the fundamental setting of democracy, and there has always been critical action happening at state legislatures, in state courts, and through state constitutional change. State constitutions provide an active means to achieve progress and protect rights not federally enshrined (and thus, endangered by the political process). The use of state constitutions to prescribe ways of life, protect individual and specialized rights, and to limit local governments has always occurred, but with the current federal …
Healthy And Unhealthy Responses To American Democratic Institutional Failure, Thomas D'Anieri
Healthy And Unhealthy Responses To American Democratic Institutional Failure, Thomas D'Anieri
CMC Senior Theses
I have set out on the hunch that politics in America “feels different,” that we are frustrated both with our institutions as well as with one another. First, I will seek to empirically verify this claim beyond mere “feelings.” If it can be shown that these kinds of discontent genuinely exist to the extent that I believe they do, I will then explain why people feel this way and why things are different this time from the economic, political, and social points of view. Next, I will examine two potential responses, what I will call the populist and the institutional …