Stefanie Lindquist is the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Design and a Foundation Professor of law and political science in the School of Global Politics and the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
The United States Constitution was signed by the members of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. We now celebrate that banner day every year.
And well we should. This year marks the 236th birthday of our national Constitution, and continues its legacy as the oldest written constitution in the world. Yes, we have the immense good fortune to live in the oldest constitutional democracy existing anywhere on the globe. As a nation, we may feel justifiable pride in that accomplishment.
But why else is the U.S. Constitution so significant? First, the Constitution of 1787 was a written constitution. While this may seem obvious, its significance is still profound. For example, in 1787 Britain did not and still does not have a written Constitution. Indeed, no nation did prior to 1787. The Framers of the Constitution knew that a written constitution would produce the clearest specifications on what powers the new government could exercise, and what powers they could not. This level of specificity allowed for the states to operate within their own spheres of local power, and for the citizens to enjoy substantial freedom from government interference to pursue their own social, economic, and political activities. In an early opinion interpreting the Constitution, Chief Justice John Marshall noted that a written constitution was “the greatest improvement on political institutions” because it defined the powers of the federal government as limitations that, by being written, “may not be mistaken or forgotten.”
Second, our written Constitution sets forth and thus limits the specific powers of the three branches of the federal government: Congress, the President, and the Judiciary. These branches exercise the fundamental powers of any government. The Congress writes laws that govern our society, the President executes those laws, and the Judiciary evaluates their application to individuals and groups.
Separating these powers has enormous practical significance.
When a single individual or group has the authority to exercise all these powers, it means that individual or groups can write the laws, determine to whom they shall be applied, and then evaluate whether any individual is guilty of violating them. That is the definition of tyranny, because no countervailing force can constrain the governing power from exercising coercive power against a disfavored person or group in society. And dictators and monarchs are rarely benevolent, because, as Lord Acton wisely noted, “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” By ensuring that these key powers are divided among three separate institutions, the Framers ensured that “ambition would counteract ambition” and guard against tyrannical rule.
Third, the very longevity of the Constitution also has profound significance. Over time, written constitutions set expectations for government officials and citizens. We call these expectations “constitutional norms” or “constitutional conventions,” and these conventions and norms are as important as the document’s written word. That’s because written constitutions—for all of their benefits—only amount to words on paper, what James Madison called “parchment barriers.” Officials and citizens must respect and abide by those words, and that’s where norms do the work. Russia has a written constitution too, but that does not mean that the government there respects its specifications for individual freedoms. Even in the United States, therefore, with its long history of constitutional democracy, we rely on our respect for the Constitution—above all—to enable it to endure.
We often dispute the meaning of this fundamental document, the separation of powers and the individual rights and equality it protects. But regardless of these disputes, the Constitution provides us with a way to deliberate and even change our fundamental rules of governance according to the law and without resort to violence. Lately, a restlessness has emerged with demands to change certain provisions of the Constitution. Some suggest that the U.S. Constitution requires updating; others look for adjustments for the sake of better governance. How should we go about that in a way that preserves the oldest Constitution in the world but makes it possible for a new generation to assume custody of the country they inherit? Like all generations of Americans, we owe it to our descendants to engage the idea of change thoughtfully, collectively, and with an ever-watchful eye to preserving our remarkable constitutional foundations.
All of this leads to the key point about the Constitution in the famous words of Ben Franklin. The written document establishes a republic, but only if we choose to keep it.