Document Type
Essay/Newsletter
Media Type
Text
Abstract
In the last generation, politics has replaced philosophy as constitutional theory's center of gravity. While theorists once focused on judicial authority and looked to philosophy to validate the principles of justice that judges enforced, they now tend to consider how judges fit into the broader political process that defines constitutional doctrine. This essay considers how the change obscures important questions about the nature of democratic government. It does so by examining Sanford Levinson's recent book, Our Undemocratic Constitution--an attempt to bridge academic theory to the practice of politics that is emblematic of constitutional theory's emphasis of politics over philosophy.
First Page
311
Last Page
334
Publication Date
5-1-2009
Department
Other
ISSN
0734-1490
Language
eng
Publisher
Northern Illinois University Law Review
Recommended Citation
Ward, Kenneth D.
(2009)
"A Turn to Politics: Sanford Levinson's Our Undemocratic Constitution and Debates in Contemporary Constitutional Theory,"
Northern Illinois University Law Review: Vol. 29:
Iss.
2, Article 1.
Suggested Citation
Kenneth D. Ward, A Turn to Politics: Sanford Levinson's Our Undemocratic Constitution and Debates in Contemporary Constitutional Theory, 29 N. Ill. U. L. Rev. 311 (2009).
