I am pleased to be able to speak to you on the constitutional underpinnings of the American political system. As Dean Dessouki indicated in his own remarks, the institutions of the US can only be understood in terms of their cultural context. The United States lies somewhere between the United Kingdom and France, in terms of its constitution. But while the American republic has lasted 200 years with one constitution, France has had five republics, two empires and two republics during the same time.
Some authors cite a distinctive set of American political values, reflected in the Constitution.
Materialism and the business ethic. Others would add racism and sexism. Without denying that these values are widely held, I find it more useful to conceptualize the cultural underpinnings of the system in terms of several competing sets of values. The Federalists of Hamilton were a coalition of New England and the Middle Atlantic elites, based on a common belief in activist government. That two-party framework continues to dominate American politics, even though the membership of the coalitions has changed.