Document Type
Book Review
Abstract
It is a bold claim that the United States Constitution is a threat to democracy in the United States. It is certainly a claim that most would reject outright or be highly skeptical of at least. It is, however, exactly the claim that Erwin Chemerinsky makes in his book No Democracy Lasts Forever.
Erwin Chemerinsky is a prolific scholar, particularly of constitutional law. It is not surprising that he would produce a timely, topical, and thought-provoking book on the subject. What is surprising is his fundamental premise that the Constitution itself threatens democracy in the United States today. This provocative claim will probably deter some from engaging this book. It is a book that anyone interested in the structure and sustainability of governance in the United States should seriously engage, however. This book challenges all readers to actively assess the organic charter of the United States with the goal of producing, “a more perfect union” as the Founders charged themselves and their successors. A reader need not accept Chemerinsky’s technical suggestions, or even his underlying premise, to be spurred by his book to meaningful and beneficial thought about how the United States governs itself as a nation. In this alone, any book would be a success.
Whether Chemerinsky succeeds in sounding the alarm to think again about our constitutional structure remains to be seen. Whether his premise that the Constitution has come to undercut democracy or his specific responsive recommendations to that premise are accepted will depend on the response of readers. An exploration of his arguments is the place to begin making that determination.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.70657/SDLR.V71.I1.121
Recommended Citation
Neil Fulton,
A More Perfect Union? (reviewing Erwin Chemerinsky, No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States (2024)),
71
S.D. L. Rev.
121
(2026).
Available at:
https://red.library.usd.edu/sdlrev/vol71/iss1/11