Constitutional Ratification without Reason

by Lenowitz, Jeffrey A.

• ISBN13: 9780198852346
• ISBN10: 0198852347
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2022-06-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Author Biography

Jeffrey A. Lenowitz, Meyer and W. Walter Jaffe Assistant Professor of Politics, Brandeis University

Jeffrey A. Lenowitz is the Meyer and W. Walter Jaffe Assistant Professor of Politics at Brandeis University, where he researches and teaches political theory. He received his doctorate from the Department of Political Science at Columbia University and held a Prize Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. He is also a faculty member of the History of Ideas Program at Brandeis.

Table of Contents

1. Questioning Ratification
1. Basic concepts
2. Ratification
3. What kind of justification?
4. Why care about ratification?
5. Structure
2. Ratification Beyond (And Before) Constitutions
1. Agency law
2. Ratification in treaty law
3. Labor law & collective bargaining
4. Conclusions
3. The Invention of Constitutional Ratification
1. The Berkshire Constitutionalists
2. The Mechanicks' Union of New York City
3. Ratification by state conventions: Philadelphia
4. Ratification by Convention: Georgia
5. Conclusion
4. Making the Constituent Power Speak
1. The theory of constituent power
2. Finding constituent power justifications
3. Constituent power dispersed
4. Conclusion
5. The Unalienable Right of the Berkshire Constitutionalists
1. Historical context, theoretical context
2. Constituent power rooted in contractualism
3. Constitutional creation & constituent power
4. The Sleeping Sovereign & the Unique Site Justification
5. Conclusion
6. Ignorance and the Constituent Power
1. What kind of choice?
2. Condorcet's prediction
3. Ignorant framers
4. Information shortcuts
5. Educating the people
6. Conclusion
7. Representation Through Accountability
1. Representation justification
2. Ratification's potential role
3. Ratification as accountability mechanism
4. Objections
5. Conclusion
8. Legitimacy Types & Procedures
1. What is legitimacy?
2. Legitimate constitutions
3. Creating legitimacy
4. Pathways to constitutional legitimacy
5. Conclusions
9. Legitimation Device
1. Substantive legitimation
2. Procedural moral legitimation
3. Procedural sociological legitimation
4. Conclusion
10. Conclusion
1. Summary of findings
2. Lessons and questions
3. Context dependent reasons