A New Constitution for a New America Author:William MacDonald Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III RIGIDITY VS. FLEXIBILITY One of the first things that strikes the student of American politics is the extraordinary rigidity which the Constitu... more »tion gives to the legislative and executive branches of the Federal government. With the exception of South America, where the various republics have copied freely from the practice of the United States, no constitutional arrangement so lacking in flexibility is now to be found anywhere in the world. Instead of a national government whose executive and legislative officials are directly subject at all times to the will of the people, and who therefore may at any time be called to account by constitutional means without anything suggestive of a revolution, the United States has possessed from the beginning a national government two of whose three departments are cast in rigid chronological molds, with the result that they are beyond the reach of the voters and practically beyond the reach even of organized public opinion, save at the stated intervals at which elections are required to take place. While on the one hand the people are powerlessto change the personnel of their national government whenever, unhappily, it may have ceased to represent them properly, they are on the other hand compelled to vote at stated periods on the question of change whether or not at the moment a change is desired. The President, for example, is elected for a fixed term of four years. During that time he is practically beyond the reach of the people. He cannot be coerced either by the States or by the public or, save under extraordinary circumstances, any other branch of the Federal government. He may listen to advice or petitions, or ignore them, as he chooses. He may act in harmony with Congress or may oppose it, while his powers are so ...« less