“Unlocking Humanity: The Surprising Secret Behind What Makes Us Truly Human”
The Test of Time
Since all this, the U.S. Constitution has endured longer than any other codified constitution beside Massachusetts’s. In part, this is because of the very structure of it, right down to its length, being one of the shortest Constitutions in the world. The crafters didn’t want to make a document that tried to handle every scenario, but rather a set of timeless principles to help guide future decisions and help ensure stability as much as possible. Just as critically, because it is a living document, they made sure it was able to be amended as needs arise, though with difficulty in order to aid in that stability. For example, in the 247 years since the U.S. Constitution was ratified, almost 20,000 amendments have been proposed to the Constitution, but only 27 have been approved.
Unsurprisingly from its resilience and the elements that have worked well, and how revolutionary it was at the time compared to most governments of the day, in the aftermath, the U.S. Constitution became one of the most influential constitutions on earth, with elements borrowed by countless other nations since.
That said, given the normally short lifecycle of constitutions, and that humanity has continued to progress in ideas of governing bodies, in recent decades other constitutions have begun to gain in prominence, with the U.S. Constitution’s influence slowly beginning to wane. With some, such as Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, even stating in 2012, “I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012.” Indeed, a study also done in 2012, by David Law of Washington University in St. Louis looking at over 700 federal constitutions from around 200 countries indicate that The United States’ hat isn’t just on top physically, but the no doubt printed in flannel 1982 Constitution of Canada has recently taken over the top spot for most influential Constitution in recent times.
