Suggested Reading
Aristotle. Politics. Translated by C. D. C. Reeve.
Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998.
This important work includes a detailed discussion of how constitutions
are defined and explains what results different types of constitutions have.
Bakvis, Herman, and William M. Chandler. Federalism and the
Role of the State. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987.
A study of the way federalism affects governing.
Goldwin, Robert A., Art Kaufman, and William A. Schambra, eds.
Forging Unity Out of Diversity: The Approaches of Eight Nations.
Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1989.
A comparative analysis of how countries deal with ethnic and religious
differences.
Montesquieu, Baron de. The Spirit of the Laws.
Translated by Ann M. Cohler, Basta C. Miller, and Harold Stone. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Montesquieu was one of the most influential theorists of laws and
constitutions in the Western world.
McDonald, Forrest. E Pluribus Unum: The Formation of the
American Republic, 1776–1790. Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1979.
A good account of the difficulties of writing a constitution in the United
States. It also includes a history of the Articles of Confederation.
Reich, Robert. The Work of Nations. Reprint, New
York: Vintage, 1992.
Reich argues that national borders mean very little in the global economy
and that nations need to adopt new ways of thinking about the international
system.
Riker, William. Federalism: Origin, Operation, Significance.
Boston: Little, Brown, 1964.
A valuable account of federalism.
Sunstein, Cass R. Designing Democracy: What Constitutions
Do. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
A good account of the importance of sound constitutions in creating a
democratic state.
Useful Websites
www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/constitution/toc.html
Analysis and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.
http://archives.gov/historical-docs
Online facsimiles and information about some of the nation’s most
important historical documents, including the Declaration of Independence and
the Louisiana Purchase.
www.europa.eu
A useful and well-organized site with links to the many different parts of
the institutions of the European Union.
www.uni-wuerzburg.de/law/index.html
The website of the International Constitutional Law Project, which
monitors the status of constitutions and amendments from all over the
world.
