Constitutions are the set of rules by which power is distributed among members.
Everyone knows of the United States Constitution. Most people can define it as the rules that govern government. That is a good way to define it, but a constitution can be used in a more encompassing way. For example, all of the student groups on campus are required to have a constitution. It tells all the members how the structure of the organization is going to organized and it sets out the details for which members get power and how much power. Just to redefine power it's the ability to make one person do what the first person wants by whatever means possible. .
• differentiate between Constitution (C) and constitution (c). .
o A Constitution is a formal document like the United States Constitution or the Constitution of the Netherlands.
o A constitution is just the rules. it's not connected with a specific country or group.
II. Differences in construction - the way they're put together.
• Formality - by that I mean how they're written.
o There is a definite difference between new constitutions and old constitutions.
o Some constitutions are short for example the Catholic Church has a small constitution. It's rules and policies are in other documents or the rules just come from tradition.
o The United States is considered to be one of the older constitutions.
Has about 5 thousand words. and that includes all 27 amendments.
o Germany's constitution written in 1949 is a more recent constitution.
It was written after WWII and has 20 thousand words.
4 times as many as the United States.
• a lot of the constitution deals with who would rule in an emergency.
• this makes sense as it was written right after WWII.
o Theories as to why new constitutions are longer.
1) the writers are more aware of the great size and importance of the state 2) want to protect the state's power from difficulties that might come up.