Analysis On Bruce Ackerman's Dualist Constitutionalism With The Text Of We The People

The constitutional history of the U.S. began with The Constitution of 1787. The consititution became the foundation of the country and worked very well for over two centuries. There are three key reforms of the Constitution. Based on the reforms, prefesor Ackerman, from Law School of Yale University, did an in-depth academic exploration on the theory and practice of the United States Constitution. In 1990, We the People:Foundations, the first volume of We the People was published, then the second volume We the People:Transformations was published in 1998. In these Books, Ackerman conducted a comprehensive study on the history of the U.S. Constitution, thus formed the core of his constitutional thought- dualist constitutionalism. There are limited studies on his constitutional thought in China. Based on the previous studies and the series We the People, we try to do some preliminary analyses on Ackerman's constitutional thought. We will do this with both statements and comments.There are four chapters of this article.Chapter one,introduction.This part mainly introduces We the People series,Ackerman's academic achievements, studies of Ackerman's constitutional thoughts and innovation the research method of this article.Chapter two, the origin of Ackerman's dualist constitutionalism.This chapter mainly introduces the form of Ackerman's constitutional thought form three aspects: the origin of history, the origin of system and the origin of theory. The origin of history is just the three key reforms of the Constitution, the origin of the system is the republicanism in the American constitution, and the origin of the theory is from Plato's mix regime thought, Aristotle's mix regime thought, Polybius's mix regime thought and Hayek's liberal constitutionalism.Chapter three, Ackerman's dualist constitutionalism . Part one, Ackerman's dualist dmocracy theory. With the study of the constitutional history of America, Ackerman overthrew the representative monism, which was the most popular theory, by presenting his dualist democracy theory. This article will introduce three key groups factors of dualist democracy theory: normal lawmaking and higher lawmaking, private citizens and political citizens, the expression of popular sovereignty and the practice of law. Part two, constitutional politics theory. The constitutionalism in the constitutional politics is the core of Ackerman's constitutional theory. This part mainly introduces sovereignty, democracy, the rule of law and their relationship.Chapter four, the evaluation of Ackerman's dualist constitutionalism. This chapter first discusses the significance of Ackerman's dualist constitutionalism, which include theoretical and practical significance. Secondly, to discuss the dilemma of his theory from three aspects: diverse interests, the criteria of constitutional moment, the uncertainty of the constitutionalism.