Constitutional reform is a topic of perennial academic debate, perhaps now more than ever amid sharp polarization in the electorate and government. At once a cogent, new contribution to the scholarly literature and appropriate for American politics and government students, this book mounts a provocative, nonideological defense of the US Constitution, directly engaging proposals for reform and providing a rare systematic argument for continuity: Our politics may be broken but our system is not. Writing from an international perspective with an array of fascinating data, the author draws on theory, law, and history to defend the republican order under political stress and intellectual challenge.

Robert S. Singh is Professor of Politics at Birkbeck, University of London. His research focuses on contemporary US politics and the politics of US foreign policy.

Preface

Introduction: Why the Constitution Needs Defending Today

1. Constitutional Critiques: The Re-Emergence of Jeffersonian Constitutional Angst

2. The Preamble, Then and Now: A More Perfect Union

3. Governing Institutions

4. Amendments and Interpretation

Conclusion: Cults, Crises, Conventions, and Crossroads

Bibliography