As the White House ignores judicial decisions, and Congress is increasingly lackluster in its willingness to exert its prerogatives in our mixed government system—this is the time for institutionalists to step forward.
Institutionalists are public figures, including members of Congress, who place the preservation of the separation of powers and checks and balances ahead of their party and even ahead of specific outcomes that might serve well their reelection prospects. Their loyalty to preserving our constitutional order goes all the way back to the founding of our democratic republic.
Institutionalists are public figures, including members of Congress, who place the preservation of the separation of powers and checks and balances ahead of their party.
These figures have existed in both our major parties today and throughout American history. They are part of the framers’ imagination as they debated how to divide legislative, judicial, and executive powers—and preserve that balance among the branches of government—in the name of preventing arbitrary rule and ensuring freedom.
These ideas are captured in The Federalist Papers, which remain the best articulation of the ideas, principles and institutions established by the U.S. Constitution.
That’s not to say that everything was worked out in 1789, as Stanford University historian Jonathan Gienapp argues in The Second Creation: Fixing the American Constitution in the Founding Era. Gienapp shows how our early leaders were often debating the meaning of provisions and making decisions and setting precedents as they went. In some ways, it was the constitutional republic equivalent to building the plane while flying.
Our early leaders were often debating the meaning of provisions and making decisions and setting precedents as they went. In some ways, it was the constitutional republic equivalent to building the plane while flying.
Read the full op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.