Ratification

US Constitution – Ratification and the Bill of Rights, 1787-91

This course picks up just after the proposal of a new US Constitution by the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787. We begin in the first lecture by exploring the process of state ratification and its significance, before moving on in the second lecture to the debate between the Federalists and Antifederalists over the proposed new Constitution. In the third lecture, we ask the question “Why did the Federalists win?” given the likelihood that the majority of the American population opposed the constitution at this time. In the fourth lecture, we analyse the Antifederalists’ key contribution to the constitutional project: the Bill of Rights. In our fifth and final lecture we conclude with some comments about the 1776 Declaration of Independence and the enduring US Constitution.

Ratification

In this module we explore the process of ratification and its significance, focusing in particular on: (i) the significance of the fact that while the previous Articles of Confederation had required the assent of all states to a change of this magnitude, the US Constitution required only nine special state conventions to vote in its favour; (ii) the significance of the openness of state ratifying conventions, in contrast to the elite and closed-off nature of the 1787 Constitutional Convention; (iii) the importance of the theory of popular sovereignty as encapsulated by the famous phrase “We the People”.