Conventional Wisdom: The Alternate Article V Mechanism for Proposing Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
- ISBN-10
- 0820349003
- ISBN-13
- 9780820349008
- Series
- Conventional Wisdom
- Category
- Constitutional amendments
- Pages
- 266
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2016
- Publisher
- University of Georgia Press
- Author
- John R. Vile
Description
Article V of the Constitution allows two-thirds majorities of both houses of Congress to propose amendments to the document and a three-fourths majority of the states to ratify them. Scholars and frustrated advocates of constitutional change have often criticized this process for being too difficult. Despite this, state legislatures have yet to use the other primary method that Article V outlines for proposing amendments: it permits two-thirds of the state legislatures to petition Congress to call a convention to propose amendments that, like those proposed by Congress, must be ratified by three-fourths of the states. In this book, John R. Vile surveys more than two centuries of scholarship on Article V and concludes that the weight of the evidence (including a much-overlooked Federalist essay) indicates that states and Congress have the legal right to limit the scope of such conventions to a single subject and that political considerations would make a runaway convention unlikely. Charting a prudent course between those who fail to differentiate revolutionary change from constitutional change, those who fear ever using the Article V convention mechanism that the Framers clearly envisioned, and those who would vest total control of the convention in Congress, the states, or the convention itself, Vile's work will enhance modern debates on the subject.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2001-09-27
- 205 pages
- Paperback
- Univ of California Press
-
- 2000-05-09
- 219 pages
- Ebook
- Univ of California Press
Similar books
-
Untruth: Why the Conventional Wisdom Is (Almost Always) Wrong
By Robert J. SamuelsonIntroduction UNTRUTH: A PRIMER John Kenneth Galbraith, the economist and writer, coined the phrase conventional wisdom more than four decades ago in his 1958 bestselling book, The Affluent Society. As Galbraith defined it, ...
-
Against The Conventional Wisdom: A Primer For Current Economic Controversies And Proposals
By Douglas Dowd... in a succinct and knowledgeable essay, “Plans for Social Security's Future,” Washington Post, March 9, 1996, wherein other pointed questions were also raised. 44. For the larger picture and its details, see David Cay Johnston, ...
-
Second Thoughts: Sociology Challenges Conventional Wisdom
By Janet M. Ruane, Karen A. CeruloLawson, K., Crouter, A., and McHale, S. 2015. “Links Between Family Gender Socialization Experiences in Childhood and Gendered Occupational Attainment in Young Adulthood.” Journal of Vocational Behavior 90:26–35. Lax, E. 1992.
-
Conventional Wisdom and American Elections: Exploding Myths, Exploring Misconceptions
By Peter L. Francia, Jody C. BaumgartnerFor an excellent review of voter fraud in the 1800s, see Peter H. Argersinger, “New Perspectives on Election Fraud in the Gilded Age,” Political Science Quarterly 100 (Winter 1985–1986): 669–87.
-
Conventional Wisdom
By John Bart GeraldConventional Wisdom
-
Words to Live by: The Origins of Conventional Wisdom and Commonsense Advice
By Charles PanatiAmerica's favorite expert on origins focuses on the roots and history of folk wisdom, using his detective skills to track these gems to their source. Illustrations throughout.
-
Reflections on Conventional Wisdom
By Douglas RiceReflections on Conventional Wisdom
-
Education In Rural America: A Reassessment Of Conventional Wisdom
By Jonathan P. Sher... recent case studies on rural CDCs by Barry Stein, and an excellent book by John Hall Fish entitled Black Power/White Control: The Struggle of the Woodlawn Organization in Chicago (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1973).
-
Second Thoughts: Seeing Conventional Wisdom Through the Sociological Eye
By Janet M. Ruane, Karen A. CeruloFor an explicit discussion on how corporate culture influences deceit in business practices, see Tamar Frankel's Trust and Honesty: America's Business Culture at a Crossroad (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).
-
Think This/Not That: It's Time to Update Your Conventional Wisdom
By Chet W. SiskAuthor Chet W. Sisk examines the conventional wisdoms of our society to see how they are impacting our decision making.