The Basic Principles of the American Constitution
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constitution is that which originates with, and is controlled by, the people. Thus a constitution is more than a body of substantive rules and
principles. As Thomas Paine wrote, ‘‘A constitution is not the act of a
government, but of a people constituting a government, and a government without a constitution is power without right.’’ This principle is declared in the Preamble of the Constitution, which proclaims that the Constitution is ordained and established not by the government, but by ‘‘We
the People.’’
Second, the United States Constitution subscribes to the view that the
government must in all respects be politically responsible both to the
States and to the governed. This is achieved through the election and impeachment process, with only the members of the House of Representatives being directly accountable to the electorate. Though not directly
represented, the States exercise some influence by virtue of the Electoral
College, control of the franchise, and the amendment process. Prior to the
adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, the States were also
able to protect their interests in some instances by virtue of the fact that
members of the Senate were indirectly elected by State legislatures rather
than directly by the people.
Third, the Constitution rested on the proposition that all constitutional government is by definition limited government. A constitution
is a legal, not just a political limitation on government; it is considered by
many the antithesis of arbitrary rule; its opposite is despotic government,
the government of will instead of law. Parliamentary supremacy, identifying all law with legislation, is thus hostile to the American Constitution, which declares that the Constitution shall be the supreme law of
the land.
Fourth, the Constitution embraced the view that in order to achieve
limited government, the powers of government must be defined and
distributed—that is, they must be enumerated, separated, and divided.
A unitary and centralized government, or a government in which all the
functions or functionaries were concentrated in a single office, was a government that invited despotism and would inevitably become tyrannical
and corrupt. This tendency toward ‘‘tyranny in the head’’ might be prevented, or at least discouraged, through a separation of powers among
the three branches of the Federal government, and a reservation to the