Patrick Spiess

The United States constitution. Should it be altered to make it easier to amend? Patrick Spiess

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: USA, grade: 1,7, University of Leeds, course: United States Politics, language: English, abstract: Although it is difficult to prove, the constitution of the United States of America is considered to be one of the most difficult constitution's to amend, as the political scientist Donald Lutz point out (Lutz 1994). Therefore the question arise whether there is a need to alter the amendment procedure, which is enshrined in Article V. First I will give general ideas of Article V and outline the difficulties that making amendments difficult. Then I will look at arguments against making amendments easier. Following this, I will argue in favour of making amendments easier. My main argumentation will be based on the assumption that not the supermajority rule is the problem, but the inner logic of Article V itself. Finally I will examine reform proposals, which could solve the problem.