Constitutional Change in the United States: A Comparative Study of the Role of Constitutional Amendments, Judicial Interpretations, and Legislative and Executive Actions

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The processes of constitutional change in America are particularly difficult to understand because of the constant interaction between the constitutional document of 1787 and the wider set of understandings and practices surrounding that document. This work is the first to examine systematically the relationship between changes initiated by constitutional amendment and changes initiated by judicial interpretations or actions of the two elected branches of government. By examining and comparing all three mechanisms of constitutional revision, Vile offers a more complex and dynamic analysis of this important constitutional issue than can be found elsewhere in the literature.

Reviews

.,."[this] book is quite innovative and easy to read."-The Review of Politics
...[this] book is quite innovative and easy to read.-The Review of Politics
A work useful to both constitutional scholars and lay readers interested in American constitutional development.-Choice
..."this book is quite innovative and easy to read."-The Review of Politics
..."[this] book is quite innovative and easy to read."-The Review of Politics
"A work useful to both constitutional scholars and lay readers interested in American constitutional development."-Choice

Author Bio

JOHN R. VILE is Professor and Chair in the Department of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University. He is the author of Rewriting the United States Constitution (Praeger, 1991), The Constitutional Amending Process in American Political Thought (Praeger, 1992), A Companion to the United States Constitution and Its Amendments (Praeger, 1993), and Contemporary Questions Surrounding the Constitutional Amending Process (Praeger, 1993), and is the editor of The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Change in America (1993).