The United States Constitution and Its Importance

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The framers built in layers of veto power to check the democratically elected house of representatives. The authors believed that in order to make america a safer investment, they had to make America less democratic. They really believed that there was continuum or spectrum between if you move the needle towards more democracy, you're going to get less investment of capital. And if you move it towards towards less democracy, you's going to get more investment capital.

In the summer of 1787, fifty-five men got together in Philadelphia to write a new Constitution for the United States, replacing the new nation’s original blueprint, the Articles of Confederation. But why, exactly? What problems were the framers trying to solve? Was the Constitution designed to advance democracy, or to rein it in? And how can the answers to those questions inform our crises of democracy today?

By producer/host John Biewen with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with Woody Holton, Dan Bullen, and Price Thomas. The series editor is Loretta Williams.