Welfare and the Constitution
ene 2009 · New Forum Books Libro 49 · Princeton University Press
5.0star
1 opiniónreport
Libro electrónico
192
Páginas
family_home
Apto
info
reportLas calificaciones y opiniones no están verificadas. Más información
Acerca de este libro electrónico
Welfare and the Constitution defends a largely forgotten understanding of the U.S. Constitution: the positive or "welfarist" view of Abraham Lincoln and the Federalist Papers. Sotirios Barber challenges conventional scholarship by arguing that the government has a constitutional duty to pursue the well-being of all the people. He shows that James Madison was right in saying that the "real welfare" of the people must be the "supreme object" of constitutional government. With conceptual rigor set in fluid prose, Barber opposes the shared view of America's Right and Left: that the federal constitutional duties of public officials are limited to respecting negative liberties and maintaining processes of democratic choice.
Barber contends that no historical, scientific, moral, or metaethical argument can favor today's negative constitutionalism over Madison's positive understanding. He urges scholars to develop a substantive account of constitutional ends for use in critiquing Supreme Court decisions, the policies of elected officials, and the attitudes of the larger public. He defends the philosophical possibility of such theories while also offering a theory of his own as a starting point for the discussion the book will provoke. This theory holds, for example, that voucher schemes which drain resources from secular public schools to schools that would train citizens to submit to religious authority are unconstitutional; First Amendment issues aside, such schemes defeat what is undeniably an element of the "real welfare" of the people, individually and collectively: the capacity to think critically for oneself.
Barber contends that no historical, scientific, moral, or metaethical argument can favor today's negative constitutionalism over Madison's positive understanding. He urges scholars to develop a substantive account of constitutional ends for use in critiquing Supreme Court decisions, the policies of elected officials, and the attitudes of the larger public. He defends the philosophical possibility of such theories while also offering a theory of his own as a starting point for the discussion the book will provoke. This theory holds, for example, that voucher schemes which drain resources from secular public schools to schools that would train citizens to submit to religious authority are unconstitutional; First Amendment issues aside, such schemes defeat what is undeniably an element of the "real welfare" of the people, individually and collectively: the capacity to think critically for oneself.
Calificaciones y opiniones
5.0
1 opinión
Acerca del autor
Sotirios A. Barber is Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of On What the Constitution Means and The Constitution of Judicial Power, and coeditor of Constitutional Politics (Princeton).
Califica este libro electrónico
Cuéntanos lo que piensas.
Información de lectura
Smartphones y tablets
Instala la app de Google Play Libros para Android y iPad/iPhone. Como se sincroniza de manera automática con tu cuenta, te permite leer en línea o sin conexión en cualquier lugar.
Laptops y computadoras
Para escuchar audiolibros adquiridos en Google Play, usa el navegador web de tu computadora.
Lectores electrónicos y otros dispositivos
Para leer en dispositivos de tinta electrónica, como los lectores de libros electrónicos Kobo, deberás descargar un archivo y transferirlo a tu dispositivo. Sigue las instrucciones detalladas que aparecen en el Centro de ayuda para transferir los archivos a lectores de libros electrónicos compatibles.
