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A constitution is the form and character of a political community; a written constitution establishes the basic framework of government.

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The word constitution has two related meanings, both important for understanding political life.

The Classical Meaning of Constitution

In classical political philosophy, a constitution meant much more than a written legal document.

Aristotle used the term to describe the fundamental ordering of a political community—who rules, how political offices are arranged, what purposes the regime serves, and ultimately the kind of life associated with that political order. In this broader sense, the constitution describes a regime by its distinctive character and way of life.

A useful way to understand this older meaning is simply to ask: What constitutes this regime?

What does the political community honor and praise? What does it regard as shameful? What kinds of citizens does its educational system seek to form? What understandings of family, religion, work, property, military service, and citizenship shape ordinary life?

And perhaps most importantly: Who rules, and toward what end?

Does government serve primarily the interests of one ruler, a few rulers, or the larger political community? What qualities or characteristics give some people political authority rather than others?

Questions like these help explain why ancient Athens and Sparta possessed very different constitutions even though neither possessed a modern written constitution comparable to the Constitution of the United States.

A constitution, in this classical sense, describes a regime-the fundamental way of life within a political community.

A Written Constitution

In modern usage, constitution often refers more narrowly to a fundamental written law establishing the institutions, powers, procedures, and limits of government. The Constitution of the United States is a written constitution in this sense.

Its opening words identify the source of its authority: “We the People of the United States…” The Constitution then establishes the institutions through which federal political power may be exercised and identifies powers and procedures associated with those institutions.

The written Constitution therefore answers several fundamental political questions:

• Who may exercise governmental power?
• What kinds of power may they exercise?
• Through what institutions and procedures?
• What limits govern the exercise of those powers?

Dividing Political Power

One of the central features of the United States Constitution is its division of political power.

At the national level, legislative, executive, and judicial powers are assigned to different institutions. This arrangement is commonly described as the separation of powers. The constitutional structure also gives the branches various means of checking one another, reducing the concentration of governmental authority in a single institution.

Political power is divided another way through federalism.

In addition to the limited powers delegated to the national government by the Constitution, other powers remain with the states or the people. The Tenth Amendment states this principle explicitly: powers not delegated to the United States, nor prohibited to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.

Both arrangements address the same fundamental problem: How can government possess enough power to perform its proper functions without concentrating so much power that liberty becomes insecure?

The Key Ideas Separation of Powers and Federalism examine these arrangements more fully.

A Constitution That Can Be Amended

A written constitution must provide stability, but circumstances can arise in which fundamental law itself needs to be changed.

Article V therefore establishes a formal amendment process. Amendments may be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress or by a convention called upon application of two-thirds of the state legislatures. Ratification requires approval by three-fourths of the states. Constitutional change is therefore possible but deliberately more difficult than passing an ordinary law.

This distinction is important. If a constitution could be altered as easily as ordinary legislation, the fundamental rules limiting political power could change whenever temporary political majorities wished to change them.

The amendment process allows deliberate constitutional change while preserving a distinction between fundamental law and ordinary law.

Judicial Review

For a written constitution to function as fundamental law, government actions must be measured against it.

The Constitution does not expressly use the phrase judicial review, but American constitutional law developed the principle that courts, when deciding cases properly before them, may determine whether government actions are consistent with the Constitution. The Supreme Court’s 1803 decision in Marbury v. Madison became the foundational statement of this principle in federal constitutional law.

Judicial review therefore raises an important constitutional question: When an ordinary law conflicts with the Constitution, which should govern?

Within the American constitutional system, the Constitution is superior to ordinary law, and courts may refuse to give effect to laws or government actions they conclude violate it.

The Two Meanings Together

The written and classical meanings of constitution should not be confused, but neither should they be completely separated.

A written constitution establishes legal institutions and powers. But the political community living under that document also possesses habits, beliefs, traditions, standards of honor, expectations about citizenship, and understandings of justice that cannot be captured entirely on parchment.

Two societies could conceivably possess similar written constitutional provisions while living under very different political cultures. The classical question therefore remains useful even in a country with a written constitution: What actually constitutes this political community?

Why Constitution Matters

A constitution gives form and character to the political order within which political life takes place.

A written constitution identifies institutions, distributes governmental powers, establishes procedures, and places legal limits upon those who govern. The broader constitution of a regime includes the purposes, principles, habits, and understandings that give a political community its character.

To understand a political community’s constitution is to understand who rules, by what authority, through what institutions, toward what ends, and within what limits.