The Commonwealth Pattern The commonwealth pattern derives largely from the constitutions of the states of greater New England. They are basically philosophic documents designed first and foremost to set a direction for civil society and to express and institutionalize a theory of republican government. Based on seventeenth and eighteenth-century Puritan and Whiggish ideas about constitution making, this pattern is the oldest in America. It emphasizes the constitution as a covenant establishing a civil society and setting forth its frame of government. These constitutions, as brief or briefer than the federal document, concentrate on setting forth the philosophic basis for popular government, guaranteeing the fundamental rights of the individual and delineating the elements of the state's government in a few broad strokes. Frames of government in the classic American sense, they have shown greater longevity and, at least in the case of Massachusetts, greater longevity than the U.S. Constitution. Except for Vermont, none of the New England states has had more than two constitutions in its history, and Vermont has had only three, the last being adopted in 1793. Their fundamental documents have not been treated lightly. Like the federal Constitution, they have not been altered to reflect every new constitutional fad, but have remained general documents reasonably adaptable to different times and needs. Eight states outside of New England whose political character was formed by New Englanders have followed the commonwealth pattern. All are still operating under their original constitutions. Although the youngest among them-those admitted as states in the latter half of the nineteenth century-have somewhat longer constitutions than their sisters formed earlier, as a rule they are also relatively short. Their greater length is accounted for in the somewhat more detailed restrictions placed on the institutions of state government and in the granting of constitutional status to state educational and welfare institutions. Minnesota's constitution is a good example of this variation of the commonwealth pattern. Adopted in 1858 when Minnesota attained statehood, it is about 40 percent longer than that of Massachusetts, but still ranks among the shorter constitutions. The additional material in the Minnesota constitution consists of more explicit delineations of the powers and duties of state officers and clear provisions for schools, taxes, banking, highways, and legislative apportionment. The Commercial Republic Pattern A second pattern has prevailed in the Middle states (the northern states just south of New England and the states to the west of them which they have in fluenced, including most of the very large ones). These states have built their constitutions upon a series of compromises required by the conflict of ethnic and commercial interests and ideals created by the flow of various streams of migrants into their territories, and the early development of commercial cities. The pattern in each is much the same. As each stream of migrants has been able to demand a government modeled after the one its people knew "back home" or a fundamental law that would protect its socioeconomic interests, the state's constitution has been replaced or revised accordingly. Most of the states in this category have had three to six constitutions apiece. These constitutions tend to be longer than those written in the commonwealth mold, primarily because the compromises written into them have had to be made explicit and presented in detail to soften potential conflicts between rival elements that have sharply divergent views of what is politically right and proper. Illinois is an example of this tradition. Illinois was organized as a state by southern settlers in 1818. They endowed the state with a brief document which then reflected the South's approach to constitution making. Then, in the 1830s, large numbers of New Englanders began to arrive in the state. As they consolidated their settlements, they wanted to adapt the Illinois government to their own needs. To do so, they needed to change the state constitution, particularly in regard to local government, public education and public welfare. In the 1840s, they successfully bargained with their fellow citizens from Southern and Middle state backgrounds to reach a compromise embodied in the Constitution of 1848. The compromise was seriously strained by the Civil War which almost rent Illinois as it did the Union. In order to settle outstanding differences and restore harmony, the state adopted a new constitution in 1870 which maintained the compromise of 1848, but restructured the institutions which embodied that compromise to allow for minority representation in each part of the state. Between 1870 and 1970, none of the several attempts to adopt a new constitution succeeded, precisely because leaders of the state's important interests were afraid to upset the balance of forces established by the compromise. New interests were accommodated by constitutional amendments, initially granting home rule to Chicago in 1904, and a spate of modernizing amendments in the late 1950s. The cleavages of the Civil War era had sufficiently diminished by the late 1960s to enable a new constitutional convention to shape a document that is considered to be one of the most advanced in the country. The Southern Contractual Pattern The Southern states developed a third pattern of constitution making, one which began with a general penchant for changing constitutions and was en hanced by the need to do so because of the disruption of constitutional continuity caused by the Civil War. Except for North Carolina and Tennessee, none of the eleven states of the former Confederacy has had less than five constitutions, most of which embodied the constitutional changes of secession, reconstruction and the restoration of white supremacy. Alabama, for example, adopted a constitution upon its admission to the Union in 1819, a revised document when it seceded form the Union in 1861, and still another when it sought to be restored to full rights in 1865. Then it adopted two constitutions during Reconstruction (1868 and 1875) and finally a constitution ratifying white supremacy in 1901. Yet the Civil War is not solely responsible for the South's relatively casual attitude toward its fundamental charters. Of the five Southern states that did not secede, only West Virginia has had less than four constitutions. Constitutions of the Southern contractual pattern are unique in other and related ways. They are the only group to formally acknowledge the supremacy of the U.S. Constitution (a product of Reconstruction). At the same time, most of them contain (and retain) many provisions—particularly regarding elections, civil rights, and legislative apportionment-which have been invalidated by U.S. Supreme Court decisions. In general, the Southern contractual pattern has looked upon state constitutions as instruments designed to perpetuate a particular social system based on slavery or racial segregation. As political instruments, Southern state constitutions are designed to diffuse the formal allocation of authority among many offices in order to accommodate the swings between oligarchy and factionalism characteristic of Southern state politics. Perhaps because of the fluctuating balance of factions in many of the Southern states, their citizens have also been more tempted to write into their constitutions materials normally included in ordinary legislation. Texas is a prime example of this pattern. The Lone Star State's first constitution, adopted in 1836, established the Republic of Texas. Then, in 1845, Texas adopted a new constitution to join the Union, another to join the Confederacy in 1861, a fourth to rejoin the Union in 1866, a fifth in 1869 to satisfy radical Republican Reconstructionists, and a sixth in 1876 to restore white supremacy and Democratic control and to limit state government, in part, by fragmenting power and establishing many independently elected offices. Indeed, the constitution includes an explicit statement of the principle of limited government. The Texas constitution is long, somewhat unwieldy, not highly venerated, and contains 233 amendments. Efforts to substantially revise the constitution failed at the polls in 1975. The Civil Code Pattern Louisiana is the one state that operates within a constitutional pattern of its own. Because of its original French background, its constitutions have been more like the basic civil codes of European countries-long, detailed, and not particularly revered. The Pelican State has had eleven different constitutions since 1812. Its tenth constitution, adopted in 1921, contained some 256,500 words, over six times as many as the average state document. As of 1965, it had been amended 439 times. The Louisiana constitutional tradition provides, in effect, a continuing referendum on all basic governmental decisions in the state and its localities. In 1974, however, 36 percent of the registered voters turned out to adopt (by 58 percent) a more modernized constitution containing only 29,704 words. The Frame of Government Pattern The fifth pattern is to be found exclusively among the less populated states of the Far West. In these states, the constitutions are frames of government first and foremost. They explicitly reflect the republican and democratic principles dominant in the nation in the late nineteenth century when their first constitutions were written, and then go on to specify the structure of state government and the distribution of powers within it in the style of the times. Their constitutions tend to be business-like documents of moderate length that reflect the relative homogeneity of the states themselves. Indeed, among those states, only Oklahoma has a population of over two million and it has the longest constitution of the group, reflecting, in part, its Southern antecedents. Montana is a good example of this frame of government pattern. Admitted as a state in 1889, its original constitution reflected the frame of government approach when it was at its height. In 1972, that state adopted a constitution after what experts in the field consider to be a model process of constitution writing and ratification. While the new constitution incorporates many of the recommendations of constitutional reformers, it also appears to remain faithful to the frame of government pattern, adapting it to late twentieth century ideas. The constitutional tradition of the Treasure State has tended to emphasize limited government except on certain matters of economic development. After World War II, Montana emerged from almost a century of well-nigh colonial status under the control of the Anaconda Company and later, Montana Power. In part, the new constitution of 1972, which replaced the state's original document of 1889, symbolized the new independence of the state and the assertion of power by the general citizenry. The Managerial Pattern Alaska and Hawaii, the two newest states, reflect a sixth constitutional pattern, one developed in the last half of the twentieth century. Their constitutions come closest to fitting the model designed by today's constitutional reformers. This reform model emphasizes conciseness, broad grants of powers to the state executive branch, and relatively few structural restrictions on the legislature. Their constitutions also feature articles dealing with local government, natural resource conservation, and social legislation. In all of this, they reflect the Hamiltonian managerial Discussion Notes 1. Would it be likely that a state which had a constitution conforming to one of the patterns described by Dr. Elazar could revise its constitution so as to fit a different pattern? model, albeit without being aware of it. While, as a model, it is as old as the republic itself, only in the twentieth century has it entered the mainstream of American constitutional development and only in the newest states could it serve as the basis for their constitutional foundations. Alaska's constitution of 1956 must serve the nation's last land frontier and to some extent preserve it at a time when it is experiencing great pressures of modern economic development. Since statehood, its constitution has been amended fourteen times, in part to correct some of the excesses of the managerial approach. 2. Would the type of pattern into which a state's constitution fit be likely to influence the way the courts interpreted the constitution? |