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Our Most Important Export
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13486 |
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Section : |
SPECIAL SECTION
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1987 |
2,505 Words |
| Author
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Albert P. Blaustein
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The U.S. Constitution is our most important export. From its very inception, its influence has been felt throughout the world. And even where that influence has not resulted in democracy and freedom, it has still brought hope - in Lincoln's words - of government of, by, and for the people.
The story of that influence is a tale worth telling. The Founding Fathers had fashioned a constitution that was a unique breakthrough in the ever-continuing struggle for human freedom. They believed in the principle of constitutional government, which they hoped might have relevance beyond America. Thomas Jefferson looked upon the Constitution as a standing monument and a permanent example for other peoples. "It is impossible," he wrote, "not to be sensible that we are acting for all mankind." John Adams was convinced that American political ideas would profoundly affect other countries. Alexander Hamilton thought that it had been reserved to the American people to decide the question whether societies of men are really capable of establishing good government. James Madison believed that posterity would be indebted to the Founding Fathers for their political achievement and for the sound governing principles provided.
Thus it was the Founding Fathers who set themselves up as the teachers of why and (more importantly) how constitutions should be written. Their principal students were the French. Lafayette, for example, admired Jefferson, as did other critics of the old regime in France. (There exists a draft of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen - generally considered the most important human rights document ever drafted - with Jefferson's handwritten editing in the margins.) French scholars likewise clustered about Gouverneur Morris, a principle architect of the Constitution, when he visited Paris to do some legal work for his Philadelphia clients.
But it was not only Frenchmen who praised the Founding Fathers. The Polish Constitution, adopted May 3, 1791, preceded the French document by four months. Any perusal of the Polish charter - starting with the preamble itself - confirms the study of the Philadelphia model. In addition, thee are records of American constitutional consultations with German, Austria, Belgian, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese scholars and with leaders from the New World. One of the leaders of the Brazilian revolutionary movement, Mason Jose Joaquim da Maia, met with Jefferson in France for such discussions.
The Spread Of Constitutionalism
Constitutionalism is a particularly American product. True, there were documents in the Old World that had the character of basic or fundamental laws to which all other legislation would be subject. The 1579 Act of Union of the United Provinces of the Netherlands is a case in point. But no one thought of call in it a constitution or a guide, for other actions. It was indeed American-style constitutionalism that was spread throughout the world. The principal influence of the U.S. precedent is constitutionalism itself.
Since that seventeenth day of September 1787, a one-document constitution has been deemed an essential characteristic of nationhood. Today, of the 168 recognized nations of the world, all but six have such a constitution or are committed to having one. The exceptions include the three Islamic nations of Saudi Arabia,
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