The Constitution is Defunct
The social contract theories on which the constitution is based no longer function as they should — it’s time to fully democratise.
The Constitution was created by the founding fathers, who were largely influenced by classical liberal thinkers such as Locke and Rousseau. Classical liberals believe in the freedom of the individual and protection of their civil liberties, but, peculiarly, not absolute democracy.
Locke and Rousseau’s conclusions were that freedom is negative: people should not be interfered with by government, but they don’t have any specific rights. This led to the social contract theory: as long as governments respect their people’s negative rights, they can rule without democratic consent, because they have the theoretical consent.
Of course, there was disagreement among classical liberals about the extent to which democracy should be used, and today, many classical liberals do believe fully in democracy.
But the idea of the social contract, intensely influential in the late 18th century, led to the creation of the electoral college system in the US — a system designed to reduce the influence of the uneducated masses by putting, formally at least, educated people in charge.
