The Liberal Backbone of America :: essays research papers

The Liberal Backbone of AmericaWithin the framework of democratic capitalism, the American Constitution and government structure project a fundamentally imperfect backbone. Viewed as a social contract, the relationship between the responsibility and the individual is expressed in the Constitution which dictates the liberal value intrinsically woven into American history. Combined with the Bill of Rights, the Constitution holds the representative government accountable for its actions and sets finite limits on the power it wields over the individual. A capitalist society such as that of the United States uses taxation and wealth distribution as a tool for controlling social equality, an unavoidable hypocrisy of liberal values in a democratic welfare state. Classical liberal values that hold the individuals rights as paramount have been modernize to accommodate a mildly paternalistic social welfare system. Classical liberalism suggests that the state and society can be viewed as a n immense social contract. In a liberal democratic country such as America, the arrangement is the fundamental part of that social contract it is a contract between the state and the civil society. The American constitution is a guide to legislation and its interpretation. An essentially liberal contract, the constitution binds not only the government, but also the hoi polloi. Through the constitution, the people collectively commit to certain institutional procedures for managing customary affairs and resolving social conflicts. The constitution not only limits the arbitrary power of the government, it also prevents public administration from being poisoned by peoples short-term tempers and passions. Through the constitution, the people collectively commit to certain checks against those capricious human sentiments. A central liberal teaching which the American constitution serves, is to limit and separate governmental power. The classically liberal distrust of majoritarian tyr anny has continued into present-day American politics through its map in the Constitution. In a liberal constitutional system, there is an important difference between the constitution and ordinary laws. While ordinary laws can be modified or repealed to protect civil liberties by the national legislature, or be declared illegal or unconstitutional by the process of judicial review (Burns et al, 1993, p.21), the national legislature usually has no unilateral power to modify or repeal the constitution, and the judiciary has no power to declare the constitution illegal. For example, in the United States, the constitution can only be modified after the legislatures (or constitutional conventions) of two-thirds of the states approve, or by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress, followed by ratification from three-quarters of the states or their ratification conventions (Burns et al, 1993, p.