(US Constitution) Loses Appeal With People Around the World

[phantom power]

“The U.S. Constitution appears to be losing its appeal as a model for constitutional drafters elsewhere,” according to a new study by David S. Law of Washington University in St. Louis and Mila Versteeg of the University of Virginia.

The study, to be published in June in The New York University Law Review, bristles with data. Its authors coded and analyzed the provisions of 729 constitutions adopted by 188 countries from 1946 to 2006, and they considered 237 variables regarding various rights and ways to enforce them.

...

There are lots of possible reasons. Our Constitution is terse and old, and it guarantees relatively few rights. The commitment of some members of the Supreme Court to interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning in the 18th century may send the signal that it is of little current use to, say, a new African nation. And the Constitution’s waning influence may be part of a general decline in American power and prestige.

In an interview, Professor Law identified a central reason for the trend: the availability of newer, sexier and more powerful operating systems in the constitutional marketplace. “Nobody wants to copy Windows 3.1,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/us/we-the-people-loses-appeal-with-people-around-the-world.html?_r=1&hp

[hobbit709]

1. The U.S. as a role model has lost its appeal too around the world.

[JDPriestly]

2. it guarantees relatively few rights.

That is the problem. It does not guarantee the right to education, the right to a fair share of the food available in our nation, the right to healthcare, the right to work and earn a decent share of the wealth in the country or be otherwise compensated from that wealth. It does not require employers or others to guarantee the individual's right to free speech. It does not guarantee a living wage for work done. It does not adequately guarantee protection from police brutality. It does not adequately guarantee privacy from government or private snooping. It does not guarantee our right to know what our government is doing behind our backs and in secret.

And that is just the beginning.