Characteristics of a Constitutional Government

Constitutional government Creating a system of checks and balances

A constitutional government places limits upon the exercise of power in writing. Power is invested in institutions, not simply in people or customs. According to President Woodrow Wilson: "A constitutional government is one whose powers have been adapted to the interests of its people and to the maintenance of individual liberty. That, in brief, is the conception we constantly make use of, but seldom analyze, when we speak of constitutional governments" (Wilson 1908). Wilson notes that "Roughly speaking, constitutional government may be said to have had its rise at Runnymede, when the barons of England exacted Magna Carta of John; and that famous transaction we may take as the dramatic embodiment alike of the theory and of the practice we seek" (Wilson 1908).

The Magna Carta of 1215 was a written document that placed limits upon the exercise of the king's power. This was a radical notion during a historical period in which the 'divine right of kings' was still taken quite seriously. The "Magna Carta required King John of England to proclaim certain rights (pertaining to nobles and barons), respect certain legal procedures, and accept that his will could be bound by the law. It explicitly protected certain rights of the King's subjects - whether free or fettered - most notably the writ of habeas corpus), allowing appeal against unlawful imprisonment" ("Magna Carta," History, 2012). Most of the document pertained to the rights of the nobility, but the inalienable rights of the individual were still thus protected in some of the provisions of the document. This notion that the king had the obligation to respect the rights of his subjects was highly influential in giving the colonists the intellectual justification to rebel as well as to create a government based upon a concept of checks and balances. It was also very influential in the creation of the Bill of Rights, which specifically protected the right of citizens to habeas corpus and against unreasonable searches and seizures.

However, according to Wilson, there are very practical aspects to the exercise of constitutional government. "Look into any constitutional document of the English-speaking race and you shall find the same spirit, the same way of action: its aim is always an arrangement, as if of business: no abstract setting forth of liberties, no pretense of grants of privilege or political rights, but always a formulation of limits and of methods, a regulation of the way governments shall act and individuals be dealt with" (Wilson 1908). This can also be seen in the English Bill of Rights, another highly influential document for the Founding Fathers. The Bill of Rights established the rights of the legislature in relationship to the king's authority. Specifically, it contained provisions such as "that the pretended power of suspending the laws or the execution of laws by regal authority without consent of Parliament is illegal" ("English Bill of Rights 1689," Revolutionary War and Beyond, 2012). Although England had been a Parliamentary democracy for some time, kings had attempted to circumvent such provisions by not calling Parliament for years and acting in an absolutist fashion. The English Bill of Rights set forth the notion in a highly specific, non-abstract fashion that the right of Parliament as a representative body and a check upon the power of the king was just as important as the king's authority.

This concept would also be very influential in the thinking of the American Founding Fathers. Some of the stipulations, such as "that the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law" directly correspond to provisions in the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the right to declare war and also to appropriate the necessary funds to raise a standing army even though the President is Commander in Chief ("English Bill of Rights 1689," Revolutionary War and Beyond, 2012). This concept of divided government was just as influential as the philosophy of John Locke, who famously proclaimed every human being's right to life, liberty, and property -- language which was directly inserted into the Declaration of Independence as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."