The Collective-Action Constitution
Document Type
Book
Publication Date
4-2024
ISBN
9780197760963
DOI
10.1093/oso/9780197760963.001.0001
Abstract
The primary structural purpose of the US Constitution is to empower the federal government to solve collective-action problems for the states and to prevent the states from undermining these solutions or causing such problems. Any faithful account of what the Constitution is for and how it should be interpreted must include this main structural function. The Constitution was established principally because of the widely recognized failures of its predecessor, the Articles of Confederation, to adequately address multistate collective-action problems, including funding the national government, regulating foreign and interstate commerce, and defending the nation from attack. These challenges are called collective-action problems because the states would need to act collectively, not individually, to solve them, and they would often struggle to do so. In a fundamental sense, the US Constitution is the Collective-Action Constitution, and the sobering problems facing America today—including inadequate access to health care, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and future ones, opioid addiction, gun violence, racism and other bigotry, political extremism, unlawful immigration, terrorism, and nuclear proliferation—cannot be adequately dealt with by government if Americans do not recognize this truth. The main goal of the Collective-Action Constitution is not to vindicate a conception of economic efficiency but to create and maintain political and economic union.
Num Pages
520
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Recommended Citation
Neil S. Siegel,
The Collective-Action Constitution
(2024).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/2230