JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES

NINETY-SEVENTH CONGRESS

JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

[Created pursuant to sec. 5(a) of Public Law 304, 79th Cong.]

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FOREWORD

By Hon. Henry S. Reuss, Chairman

The Joint Economic Committee's hearings on Political Economy and Constitutional Reform, along with the papers and other material published in the Appendix, contain the observations and recommendations of some of the most thoughtful critics of the American political system today. During three days of hearings in November 1982, the Committee brought together more than a dozen academics, journalists, and former government officials and lawmakers to discuss how we could improve the performance of our political system, and the performance of our economy, by making changes in the structure of our government and, if necessary, in our Constitution.

The Appendix complements these hearings by making available in one place a wide variety of other material on these same issues, culled from books, academic and law journals, popular magazines, and other sources. I hope these two volumes will be useful to those who believe that our democracy can be made to work better.

In 1987, the United States will celebrate the bicentennial of our Constitution. It was a marvelous document 200 years ago, and it remains a marvelous document today. It marked the first time a Nation created itself and its people set the rules of government. As Henry Steele Commager testified:

Their achievements, then and in later years, cannot but fill us today with awe. They did indeed bring forth a new nation-the first time men had ever deliberately done that . . . Ours was, at the beginning, the most enlightened, the most mature, and the most inventive and innovative of all governments on the globe. . . What a sobering fact that every major political and constitutional institution which we now boast was created before the year 1800 and not one has been created since.

In our Constitution, the Founding Fathers created a structure of government based on the separation of powers between President and Congress and a system of deliberate checks and balances; judicial review of acts of Congress; popular election of the President and Congress; a constitutional amendment process; and a Federal system with powers and responsibilities shared by the national and state governments. It is a structure that has generally served our Nation well through its various stages of growth, from undeveloped backwater to powerful industrial nation, from amalgam of former colonies to world leader.

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