Judicial review as a self-stabilizing constitutional mechanism

Abstract

A. INTRODUCTION Most constitutions fail in less than two decades (Elkins, Ginsburg, and Melton 2009, 129) yet the US Constitution has lasted for over 200 years-despite constitutional crises and the Civil War. The US Constitution is unusual not only in its duration, but also in the popular support it commands despite the size and diversity of the federation that it governs. 1 In previous work, we have argued that the Constitution has endured because it is "self-stabilizing" (