College of Political Knowledge
Subject: Government/Political Theory
Paper #39
My friend Quin, over at Quintessential Havoc (go to blogroll and visit a thoughtful blog), has been taunting (joking) me for sometime to define just what a Constitution is or what it really does for a given people. It is not a really easy question to tackle and I shall give it my best effort……
First of all, is a constitution a social contract or a political contract?
But first before we answer that question we need to look at what makes up a constitution…..
1–defines a way of life….values, principles, and definition of justice
2–defines the people…(this is open to interruptation)
3–defines the political institutions
4–establishes the basis of authority
5–distribution of political power
6–limits of government
There may be others that someone would add…but for the case of this post…these are the ones that I feel would make up a constitution….now we come to the question is it a social or a political contract?
Social contract……the simplest definition is…..the people give up sovereignty to a government or other authority in order to receive or maintain social order through the rule of law. It can also be thought of as an agreement by the governed on a set of rules by which they are governed.
Of course we could delve into the definition a bit more but I feel that this pretty much sums up that the constitution…as defined…is a social contract as well as a political contract….
The forming of a constitution does not imply that the society is free and equitable….I mean Hobbes thought that an authoritarian monarchy was the way to go and Rousseau was all for a liberal republicanism…..even the now defunct USSR had a constitution……some have been more effective than others…..but no one constitution is for everyone…..but as much as some refuse to see that man is a herd animal and must give up some rights to be guaranteed others….and a constitution will define the limits of that contract with the population.
When considering a constitution as a political document it must be viewed in its entirety, not to pick and choose those parts that are most appealing…..for most constitutions are NOT an organic document, meaning that it is ever changing…it is the limits of the government and the people…….
Did I miss anything?
I think I could simplify it somewhat by having two separate contracts – one social and one political…
Social contract: Treat everyone as you would wish them to treat you. If your actions (even exercising your freedoms) hursts someone else who is not directly harming you, then you are aout of order and such action may be ruled as unlawful. End of!
Political contract: I would LIKE to say, go boil your head and leave people alone. however, the politician’s job is to run the principle functions of the country and I believe that things like education, healthcare and so on should be PRE-DEFINED by THE PEOPLE so that government has little control over such things and therefor runs the economy in such a way that the country can afford for the government to carry out its pre-defined duties as specified.
I say the above since anyone with a modicum of intelligence can see that most politicians (especially in the US) are both too stupid and too selfish to be allowed to control these things as they see fit – therefore, shackle the bastards before they ever get elected!
Just a thought… 😆
I like you thinking…..I also like simple…but we both know that it will never be that simple as long as the people writing this stuff are lawyers….obfuscate and castrate…..is their motto….
Sadly, you are absolutely right…
Shakespeare was on to something right?
Undoubtedly.
I think it was Lord Halifax that said….If the laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of the lawyers..,….or something to that effect….
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