The Way I See It

Constitutions: Principle, Not Policy

Published on February 15, 2005 By stutefish In Just Hanging Out

The way I see it, a Constitution should be short and sweet.

It should enumerate a few fundamental principles. The fewer the better. Beyond that, a Constitution should do... nothing.

It's for governments (ideally, democractically-elected governments) to set policy, within the bounds of the principles enumerated in their Constitution. Building policy into a Constitution is, to my mind, an surefire recipe for disaster.

But if the European Union outlasts the United States of America, I'll change my mind.

Comments

ParaTed2k

on Mar 10, 2005

Hey, Stutefish, some of your more recent articles prompted me to look at your older ones. This one caught my attention because better knowledge and understanding of the Constitution among the people is one of my quests in life.

On most things we seem to agree (at least from what I've read), however, I think you are misunderstanding what the Constitution is about. Being a letter from "We, The People" to the Federal Government, it was not meant for enumerating fundemental principals, but reminds them that We, the People hold ALL authorities and powers in this country. Then it goes on to acknowledge that, order for the government to do its job, some of those authorities and powers must be delegated to it.

Next time you read the Constitution read it in this light, I think you will gain a much better understanding of it since each of the articles and ammendments will have more meaning.

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