What is a constitution and what is its purpose?
Following is the first in a series of columns by members of the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform. By W.S. Dixon Stated simply, a constitution is the basic law on which all other laws are based. Every permanent organization of individuals, whether public or private, must have basic rules or laws for its establishment and for the conduct of its activities. Our entire national, state, and local governmental system rests on constitutions. In a democracy, the construction of a constitution is a function of the people because the people exercise the sovereignty and, as a result, decide what rules and principles they want government to follow. A portion of this constituent power is delegated by the people to the legislature by allowing it to participate in the process of amending the constitution. A constitution, to be successful, must be both stable and flexible. We in the United States are accustomed to a single-document, relatively rigid constitution. It is rigid in that it can b
