And in terms of substance, the Constitution was a significant departure from the more democratic state constitutions of the 1770s. The Federalists were eager to avoid full-fledged democratic deliberation over the Constitution, and the document that was ratified was stacked in favor of their preferences. Ultimately, both the Constitution's content and its ratification process raise troubling questions about democratic legitimacy. Slave states and nonslave states had different perspectives on how well the Constitution served their interests. The upper class overwhelmingly supported the Constitution many working class colonists were more dubious. Multiple conflicting interests had a say, from creditors and debtors to city dwellers and backwoodsmen. Just as importantly, the Constitution was hardly the product of philosophical reflections by brilliant, disinterested statesmen, but rather ordinary interest group politics. And, even after the convention succeeded, the Constitution it produced almost failed to be ratified. Simply put, the Constitutional Convention almost didn't happen, and once it happened, it almost failed.
& The Framers' Coup is more than a compendium of great stories, however, and the powerful arguments that feature throughout will reshape our understanding of the nation's founding. & Not only does Klarman capture the knife's-edge atmosphere of the convention, he populates his narrative with riveting and colorful stories. "Based on prodigious research and told largely through the voices of the participants, Michael Klarman's The Framers' Coup narrates how the Framers' clashing interests shaped the Constitution-and American history itself.
0 kommentar(er)
