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The Core of the Constitution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Thomas H. Hammond  and
Gary J. Miller
Thomas H. Hammond
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Gary J. Miller
Affiliation:
Washington University
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Abstract

It is often argued that the United States Constitution was designed so as to create a stable political order. Yet in the literature on the formal theory of democracy, there has been very little examination of constitutional provisions for their stability-inducing properties. In this paper we demonstrate that bicameralism and the executive veto tend to create stability, that the legislative override of the executive veto tends to undermine this stability, and that the interaction of bicameralism and the executive veto is likely to produce stable outcomes despite the destabilizing impact of the veto override.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 81 , Issue 4 , December 1987 , pp. 1155 - 1174
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1987

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