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Brown, Adam R.,
Subjects
Constitutions -- United States -- States.
Constitutional law -- United States -- States.
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Brown, Adam R.,
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The dead hand's grip...
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Brown, Adam R.,
Constitutions -- United States -- States.
Constitutional law -- United States -- States.
MARC Display
The dead hand's grip : how long constitutions bind states / Adam R. Brown.
by
Brown, Adam R.,
New York : Oxford University Press, [2023]
Description:
viii, 183 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 25 cm
Contents:
Introducing constitutional specificity -- Contextualizing specificity -- Specificity and amendments -- Specificity and judicial review -- Specificity and prosperity -- Evaluating state constitutions -- Conclusion.
Summary:
In this book, the author examines constitutional specificity - or length - as a way to evaluate how different polities govern citizens and regulate themselves. As the author shows, many states and nations bloat their constitutions with procedural and policy details that other polities leave to statutory or regulatory discretion. American state constitutions vary in length from under 9,000 to almost 400,000 words. Constitutional endurance has often provoked fears that the dead hand of the past may reach into the present; lengthy constitutions strengthen the dead hand's grip, binding states to a former generation's solutions to modern problems. The author argues that excessive constitutional specificity restricts state discretion, with three major results. First, it compels states to rely more frequently on burdensome amendment procedures, increasing constitutional amendment rates. Second, it increases judicial invalidation rates as state supreme courts enforce narrower limits on state action. Third and most importantly, it results in severely reduced economic performance, with lower incomes, higher unemployment, greater inequality, and reduced policy innovativeness generally. In short, long constitutions hurt states. --
Library of Congress call #:
KF4530 .B76 2023
ISBN:
9780197655283
0197655289
9780197655290
9780197655306
9780197655313
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KF4530 .B76 2023
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