A Comparison of the American and Russian Constitutions

A Comparison of the American and Russian Constitutions Item Type Article Authors Mannheimer, David Citation Mannheimer, David. (2008). "A Comparison of the American and Russian Constitutions." Alaska Justice Forum 24(4): web supplement (Winter 2008). Publisher Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage Download date 27/09/2021 05:11:32 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/11122/10604 ALASKA JUSTICE FORUM A PUBLICATION OF THE JUSTICE CENTER Winter 2008 Supplement UNIVERSITY of ALASKA ANCHORAGE Vol. 24, No. 4 Supplement A Comparison of the American and Russian Constitutions David Mannheimer physical, battles. The twentieth century English philoso- But whenever a society asks itself such Editor’s Note pher and archaeologist Robin Collingwood questions, the answers are not written on a held the view that it was impossible to blank slate. Instead, the political, social, A shorter version of this article by David understand a system of thought or analysis economic, and physical conditions that the Mannheimer appeared in the Winter fully until one understood what questions society already faces (or expects to face 2008 print and online issues of the the framers of that system were attempting shortly) will ineluctably shape and limit Alaska Justice Forum. It can be found at to answer. Collingwood applied this mode the range of potential answers—that is, the http://justice.uaa.alaska.edu/forum/24/ of inquiry to philosophical studies, but his range of answers that are both feasible and 4winter2008/a_constitution.html. method is equally fruitful when the task is acceptable to members of the society. to understand the constitutions of nations. The constitutions of the United States or region and a more numerous lower house In a general sense, of course, the constitu- and the Russian Federation were written half comprising representatives elected by popu- tion of every nation addresses itself to the a world and more than two hundred years lar ballot. (Under the original version of the same basic issues: apart. Despite this fact, the two constitutions U.S. Constitution, senators were not elected • How will the government be constituted, appear to be remarkably similar on many by popular ballot; rather, they were chosen and how will authority be distributed levels. by the state legislatures.) Both constitutions within the government? Both provide a framework for nationwide reject the English system of direct parlia- • How will political power be invested in governance of a diverse group of constitu- mentary control over the executive branch. leaders, transferred to new leaders, and ent states or regions that are acknowledged Instead, the American president and the revoked prematurely if need be? to be sovereign in their own right. Both Russian president are elected by nationwide • What will be the relationship between the constitutions establish a federal government ballot, separate from the elections for the government and its citizens? In particu- comprising three independent branches—the legislature, and the president’s authority is lar, what will be the protected rights of executive, the legislative, and the judicial. designed to be distinct from (and, at times, a the citizenry and the corresponding limits Both constitutions provide for a bicameral counterpoise to) the legislature’s authority. on the power of the state? And what will legislature: a smaller upper house consist- Yet these surface similarities mask true be the government’s obligations to its ing of two representatives from each state differences—differences in the explicit citizens, and the citizenry’s obligations to the government? • What will be the relationship between Acknowledgements the national government and the various sub-levels of government, as well as the In researching this essay, I drew heavily on three recent books about modern Russian government’s relationship with the vari- political and social history: ous cultural, civic, ethnic, and religious Leon Aron, Russia’s Revolution: Essays, 1989-2006 (American Enterprise Institute groups within society? Press, 2007). • How will the national income and re- Daniel Yergin and Thane Gustafson, Russia 2010 (Vintage Books, 1995). sources be generated, distributed, and Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the regulated? End of Revolution (Potomac Books, 2007). I also consulted a recent work on Russian intellectual history, James H. Billington’s Sometimes, the answers to these ques- Russia in Search of Itself (Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2004). tions will be found in the explicit provisions For the history of, and the arguments surrounding, the ratification of the American of a nation’s constitution; sometimes, the constitution, I relied primarily on the article, “A More Perfect Union: The Creation of answers to these questions will be found the U.S. Constitution,” which is available from the U.S. National Archives and Records in what the constitution does not say. And Administration at their web site: www.archives.gov. This web article is based on a sometimes (as, for example, the United longer printed work of the same title written by Roger A. Bruns and published by the States Constitution’s original provisions National Archives in 1986. regarding slavery), a constitution will either I obtained the English text of the Russian constitution from the Bucknell University explicitly or implicitly leave important ques- web site: www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/constit.html. tions unanswered—deferring the resolution — David Mannheimer of these issues to later political, or even 2 Alaska Justice Forum 24(4), Winter 2008 Supplement provisions of the two constitutions and also without the active assent of the wealthiest the new government (the Federalists) and differences in how seemingly equivalent states. its opponents (the Anti-Federalists) waged provisions have been put into practice. The In addition to this political disarray, a polemical war. Anti-Federalists argued premise of this essay is that these differences America had to deal with a looming eco- that the new constitution undermined state can be understood only by studying the polit- nomic disaster. The states (and, as a con- sovereignty and that it gave too much power ical, economic, and societal problems faced sequence, the Congress) were running out to a remote central government. by the American and Russian peoples when of hard currency, a flood of paper money (It must be remembered that, in the late they formulated their constitutions and by was fueling extreme inflation, and both 1700s, the two cities that had served as the understanding the types of responses to these the business and the farm economies were national capital—New York and Philadel- problems that were suggested by the two foundering. phia—were almost as remote as London nations’ cultural and legal backgrounds. In 1786, prompted by the efforts of James for most Americans. For example, in the Madison andAlexander Hamilton, Congress year 1800, it took president-elect Thomas The Formulation of issued a call to the states to send delegates Jefferson three days to travel from his home the U.S. Constitution to a convention to consider a new national outside of Charlottesville, Virginia to the The United States Constitution was writ- constitution. Although the need for change new federal city of Washington, D.C. for ten in the summer of 1787. It was proposed seemed great, the idea of altering the form his inauguration—a geographic distance of to the states on September 17th, and it went of the national government was not univer- approximately 100 miles.) into effect nine months later, on June 21, sally popular. The political leadership of The Anti-Federalists believed that their 1788, when the requisite ninth state, New Rhode Island refused to send delegates to rights and liberties were better protected if Hampshire, voted to ratify it. As a practical the constitutional convention, and Patrick primary sovereignty was exercised by state matter, however, theAmerican union did not Henry, the ardent proponent of independence governments—governments that were more become politically secure until the populous and representative government, refused to amenable to local pressure and control. and commercially important states of Vir- join the Virginia delegation, declaring that They feared that a strong national govern- ginia and New York ratified the Constitution he “smelt a rat.” The convention’s early ment, beholden to no state, would allow the later that summer. decision to conduct its debates in secret did wealthy and well-born to control the country. Two hundred thirty years later, we in the little to assuage the fears of its critics. The Anti-Federalists also pointed out that United States often take this document for Madison’s notes of the convention de- the new constitution lacked any provisions granted. From a modern perspective, the bates reveal a lengthy, and at times seeming- guaranteeing individual liberties. choices made by the drafters assume an air ly irresolvable, conflict between the larger In response, a trio of Federalists (James of inevitability—as if the provisions of the states and the smaller states concerning the Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John American constitution were self-evident scope of the new government’s authority, Jay) published the series of essays that rules for governing a democratic society. and concerning how the states were to be would become known as the Federalist We forget that the constitution was ratified

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