8
The Constitution’s Deep Roots
should be subject to removal from office through impeachment for ‘‘high
crimes or misdemeanors,’’ such as the abuse of power or the misuse of
public funds.
Various other characteristics of a sound constitutional system might
be named. The four above are particularly important, however, and are
now found in one form or another in the constitution of every country
that enjoys a high degree of liberty, order, and justice.
These characteristics of a good constitution help us to recognize what
can and cannot be achieved through constitutions.
A good constitution, in the first place, ought not to incorporate detailed
regulations to cover every contingency. On the contrary, the constitution
should be concerned with first principles of government; it should not be
an endeavor to provide rules of administration for a multitude of concerns. The longer a constitution is, the fewer people will read it, and the
harder it will become to distinguish its major provisions from details of
relatively small importance. Respect for a constitution will be diminished if it becomes an entire code of laws dealing with every conceivable subject.
Second, a written constitution ought not to conflict with the ‘‘invisible
constitution’’ or long-established patterns of institutions, customs, and
beliefs that have strongly influenced a country’s politics for many generations. A constitution invented by radicals, one deliberately designed
to break down a people’s traditional ways, must meet with strong resistance or evasion. The framers of a constitution ought to understand the
political traditions of their time and country. A good constitution, in
other words, should conform to the character, habits, and mores of the
people who will live under it. Because civilizations differ, a constitution
that is suitable for one country may be unsuitable for another. It would
be unrealistic, for example, to suppose that the entire American Constitution can be exported to foreign nations. A country without a strong
democratic tradition of self-government and a well-educated population
may also have difficulty preserving a constitution, particularly if that
constitution presupposes a level of political understanding and maturity
to which the people have not risen. For merely creating an idealistic paper constitution will not bring about substantial improvement in liberty,