In this, the first of three volumes, Bruce Ackerman offers a reinterpretation of the USA's constitutional experience and its promise for the future. Integrating themes from American history, political science, and philosophy, "We are the People" confronts the past, present and future of popular sovereignty in America. Rejecting arguments of judicial activists, proceduralists, and neoconservatives, Ackerman proposes a model of judicial interpretation that would synthesize the constitutional contributions of many generations into a coherent whole. The author ranges from examining the origins of the dualist tradition in the Federalist Papers to reflecting upon recent historic constitutional decisions. The constitution of the late 20th century can best be seen as the product of three great exercises in popular sovereignty, led by the Founding Federalists in the 1780s, the Reconstruction Republicans in the 1860s, and the New Deal Democrats in the 1930s. Ackerman examines the roles played during each of these periods by the Congress, the Presidency, and the Supreme Court. He shows that Americans have built a distinctive type of constitutional democracy, unlike any prevailing in Europe. It is a dualist democracy, characterized by its continuing effort to distinguish between two kinds of politics: normal politics, in which organized interest groups try to influence democratically elected representatives; and constitution politics, in which the mass of citizens mobilize to debate matters of fundamental principle. Although American history is dominated by normal politics, their tradition places a higher value on mobilized efforts to gain the consent of the people to new governing principles. In a dualist democracy, the triumphs of constitutional politics determine the course of normal politics.

Review

["We the People] cuts through the futile and absurd search for the 'original intent of the founders' as the way to discover the will of the people. It recognizes that the great and extraordinary occasions required for action by the people have not been confined to a single instance in the eighteenth century. It deflates the pretensions of politicians in normal politics but magnifies the importance of political leadership in mobilizing popular support for constitutional politics when constitutional politics is needed. It gives pragmatic meaning to government of, by, and for the elusive, invisible, inaudible, but sovereign people. This book is one of the most imporant contributions to American constitutional thought in the last half-century -- Cass R. Sunstein "New Republic" "We the People" can be recommended to anyone seeking a readable and complete introduction to the state of current Constitutional thought. Its analysis of the constraints on past and present judges and legal theorists, and the weaknesses in a panoply of jurisprudential positions is lucid and elegant. -- Stephen Presser "Chicago Tribune" "We the People" cuts through the futile and absurd search for the 'original intent of the founders' as the way to discover the will of the people. It recognizes that the great and extraordinary occasions required for action by the people have not been confined to a single instance in the eighteenth century. It deflates the pretensions of politicians in normal politics but magnifies the importance of political leadership in mobilizing popular support for constitutional politics when constitutional politics is needed. It gives pragmatic meaning to government of, by, and for the elusive, invisible, inaudible, but sovereign people. -- Edmund S. Morgan "New York Review of Books"

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