You might be surprised to know that when the United States Constitution was adopted, few if any of the founding fathers expected the whole thing to last this long.
Thomas Jefferson expected about one revolution per generation. James Madison thought if everything worked out, the United States of America might last till the 1920s, or so. No doubt they’d be pleased and astonished to see us still rolling along. Though I’d bet some of those old racists and sexists would be shocked to their marrow by Hillary and Condoleezza.
The U.S. Constitution has lasted so long for three reasons, in my opinion; it established flexible and adaptable institutions, checks and balances on power, and, significantly, it is hard to amend.
Not impossible, but hard. After the first package of ten amendments known as the Bill of Rights, our Constitution has only been changed seventeen times in 215 years, and two of those amendments -- the Prohibition ones -- cancel each other out.
But Michigan’s Constitution, a simple, modern, workable document at the start, is fast becoming a mess. That’s in large part because it is so easy to amend. An out-of-state special interest group can swoop in, hire folks to gather a few hundred thousand signatures, and -- voila -- you’ve got something on the ballot.
So now our constitution has more amendments than the federal one. There are so many that they are starting to cripple the lawmakers’ ability to govern.
Citizens for Michigan was formed to address that. This is a truly bipartisan group. Longtime state attorney general and liberal Democrat Frank Kelley once ran against L. Brooks Patterson, the conservative Republican czar of Oakland County.
Yet they both have signed on to a set of 63 carefully crafted recommendations for making our government work better.
Many of these fall under the category of good housekeeping. For example, if the lieutenant governor should die or moves up to become governor, Michigan now doesn’t have any way of replacing that person. This would fix that. These recommendations would also fix the jerry-built, chronically out of balance state budget machine. They would sensibly lengthen term limits, and give local governments the option of levying fees for roads and mass transit systems. They would also improve, or “tweak“ Proposal A.
Best of all, the recommendations make it harder -- though not impossible -- to amend the constitution.
Can Citizens for Michigan get this done without having a constitutional convention? Maybe … but I doubt it. My guess it that they will work to get the voters to approve a con-con four years from now. And I think that is a good idea.
After all, we’re as smart as those guys who wrote this constitution back in the 1960s -- and maybe a bit more sophisticated
Every generation deserves its chance to try and improve the world. Given that Michigan is in the process of reinventing its economy, it might be a good idea to tune up our constitution as well.
Regarding the US Constitution, I have to recommend that Young Patriots by Charles Cerami. It's a fascinating account of the maneuvering that brought about the Constitution.
Posted by: Andy McFarlane | January 03, 2007 at 07:16 AM
That is an excellent book. Thanks much, Andy!
Posted by: Jack Lessenberry | January 03, 2007 at 12:39 PM
So many amendments that it's crippling lawmakers' ability to govern?
In the 2005-06 session:
Over 4,200 bills and 2,900 amendments were introduced.
782 new laws passed.
And this doesn't include all the regulations added by various state agencies.
I'd hate to see what a legislature that wasn't crippled would be capable of doing.
Posted by: Steve Sutton | January 05, 2007 at 11:32 AM