James R Zink
Biographic Data
| ID | 1323980 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James R Zink |
| GIVEN NAMES | James R |
| FAMILY NAME | Zink |
| SIGNATURE | ZINK J R |
| AFFILIATIONS | North Carolina State University |
| ORCID | 0009-0009-0466-4959 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 104 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Amendment Culture in the United States: On the Nature and Effects of “Constitutional Veneration”
Political commentators have noted a peculiar aspect of present-day political dysfunction in the United States: Americans continue to “revere” the U.S. Constitution, even though the founding document itself is arguably responsible for many of the current political problems Americans so bemoan. On this telling, Americans’ tendency to view the Constitution as sacrosanct has significantly contributed to the precarious political moment by effectively …
Is “Constitutional Veneration” an Obstacle to Constitutional Amendment
Some constitutional scholars suggest that the US Constitution stands as one of the oldest yet least changed national constitutions in part because Americans’ tendency to “revere” the Constitution has left them unwilling to consider significant changes to the document. Several recent studies support aspects of this claim, but no study establishes a direct link between individuals’ respect for the Constitution and their reluctance to amend it. To a…
James Wilson’s Science of Politics and the Moral Psychology of American Constitutionalism
We use James Wilson’s institutional science of politics as a lens for viewing his broader understanding of American constitutionalism. Wilson accepted the “Madisonian” view that government institutions should be designed to check humans’ vicious tendencies, both among the people and within government. But he also thought they could be carefully crafted to simultaneously encourage humans’ other-regarding passions and innate moral propensities, the…
Conventional Wisdom: The Alternate Article V Mechanism for Proposing Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
Although all 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution were first approved by Congress and then ratified by the states, Article V of the Constitution also allows for “a convention for proposing amendments.” The convention mechanism has never been used, but frustration with the difficulty of getting amendments through Congress has pushed constitutional reformers to seriously consider this mode of amendment. That there is no precedent for an Article V…
Therapeutic Politics: Rawls's Respect for Rousseau
For nearly half a century democratic citizens have been preoccupied with the search for self-respect. Though classical liberalism places this question outside its purview and many commentators see in such a concern evidence of a “thin-skinned” political culture, John Rawls has recently provided serious arguments for the political relevance of self-respect. These arguments, we claim, are deeply indebted to the social and political theory of Jean-J…
The Dead Hand of the Past? Toward an Understanding of “Constitutional Veneration
The Publicola Debate and the Role of the French Revolution in American Constitutional Thought
This article analyzes the Publicola controversy, an early American debate that exposed lingering questions about the nature of American constitutionalism. The debate ignited when a young John Quincy Adams wrote a series of public letters that took direct aim at Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man, the definitive Anglo-American panegyric to the French Revolution. Writing under the pseudonym “Publicola,” Adams offered an extensive critique of Paine’s unde…
James Wilson versus the Bill of Rights: Progress, Popular Sovereignty, and the Idea of the U.S. Constitution
Americans today may take the Bill of Rights for granted, but its inclusion in the U.S. Constitution originally was controversial. To understand why, I turn to James Wilson, a leading statesman of the founding era and the chief opponent of the Bill of Rights. Among other things, Wilson thought a bill of rights would bind future generations to an incomplete list of rights and deprive them of the right to define individual rights over time. His argu…
Reconsidering the Role of Self-Respect in Rawls’sA Theory of Justice
In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls describes self-respect as "perhaps the most important" social primary good, and self-respect figures prominently in §82, the critical section where he distills his justification for the most controversial aspect of his conception of justice, the lexical priority of liberty. As such, his account of self-respect has drawn considerable attention, especially from critics, who argue that self-respect is not a suffici…
Courting the Public: The Influence of Decision Attributes on Individuals’ Views of Court Opinions
Scholars and judges commonly maintain that courts require institutional legitimacy in order to be an effective institution of government and that such legitimacy depends on judges making legally principled, neutral decisions. Two principal ways judges can signal the neutrality of decisions are the size of the majority coalition and the treatment of precedent: opinions with larger majorities or grounded in precedent project to the public that they…
The Language of Liberty and Law: James Wilson on America's Written Constitution
Although contemporary Americans take it for granted that a "constitution" is a written document, written constitutions were almost unprecedented at America's founding. James Wilson, one of the most significant yet overlooked of America's founders, offers a comprehensive theory of America's written constitution. Wilson argues that the written-ness of the U.S. Constitution serves two essential functions. As an initial matter, it memorializes the pr…
Courting the Public: The Influence of Decision Attributes on Individuals’ Views of Court Opinions
Scholars and judges commonly maintain that courts require institutional legitimacy in order to be an effective institution of government and that such legitimacy depends on judges making legally principled, neutral decisions. Two principal ways judges can signal the neutrality of decisions are the size of the majority coalition and the treatment of precedent: opinions with larger majorities or grounded in precedent project to the public that they…
Reconsidering the Role of Self-Respect in Rawls’sA Theory of Justice
In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls describes self-respect as "perhaps the most important" social primary good, and self-respect figures prominently in §82, the critical section where he distills his justification for the most controversial aspect of his conception of justice, the lexical priority of liberty. As such, his account of self-respect has drawn considerable attention, especially from critics, who argue that self-respect is not a suffici…
The Language of Liberty and Law: James Wilson on America's Written Constitution
Although contemporary Americans take it for granted that a "constitution" is a written document, written constitutions were almost unprecedented at America's founding. James Wilson, one of the most significant yet overlooked of America's founders, offers a comprehensive theory of America's written constitution. Wilson argues that the written-ness of the U.S. Constitution serves two essential functions. As an initial matter, it memorializes the pr…
The Dead Hand of the Past? Toward an Understanding of “Constitutional Veneration
James Wilson versus the Bill of Rights: Progress, Popular Sovereignty, and the Idea of the U.S. Constitution
Americans today may take the Bill of Rights for granted, but its inclusion in the U.S. Constitution originally was controversial. To understand why, I turn to James Wilson, a leading statesman of the founding era and the chief opponent of the Bill of Rights. Among other things, Wilson thought a bill of rights would bind future generations to an incomplete list of rights and deprive them of the right to define individual rights over time. His argu…
James Wilson’s Science of Politics and the Moral Psychology of American Constitutionalism
We use James Wilson’s institutional science of politics as a lens for viewing his broader understanding of American constitutionalism. Wilson accepted the “Madisonian” view that government institutions should be designed to check humans’ vicious tendencies, both among the people and within government. But he also thought they could be carefully crafted to simultaneously encourage humans’ other-regarding passions and innate moral propensities, the…
Is “Constitutional Veneration” an Obstacle to Constitutional Amendment
Some constitutional scholars suggest that the US Constitution stands as one of the oldest yet least changed national constitutions in part because Americans’ tendency to “revere” the Constitution has left them unwilling to consider significant changes to the document. Several recent studies support aspects of this claim, but no study establishes a direct link between individuals’ respect for the Constitution and their reluctance to amend it. To a…
Therapeutic Politics: Rawls's Respect for Rousseau
For nearly half a century democratic citizens have been preoccupied with the search for self-respect. Though classical liberalism places this question outside its purview and many commentators see in such a concern evidence of a “thin-skinned” political culture, John Rawls has recently provided serious arguments for the political relevance of self-respect. These arguments, we claim, are deeply indebted to the social and political theory of Jean-J…
Courting the Public: The Influence of Decision Attributes on Individuals’ Views of Court Opinions
Scholars and judges commonly maintain that courts require institutional legitimacy in order to be an effective institution of government and that such legitimacy depends on judges making legally principled, neutral decisions. Two principal ways judges can signal the neutrality of decisions are the size of the majority coalition and the treatment of precedent: opinions with larger majorities or grounded in precedent project to the public that they…
The Language of Liberty and Law: James Wilson on America's Written Constitution
Although contemporary Americans take it for granted that a "constitution" is a written document, written constitutions were almost unprecedented at America's founding. James Wilson, one of the most significant yet overlooked of America's founders, offers a comprehensive theory of America's written constitution. Wilson argues that the written-ness of the U.S. Constitution serves two essential functions. As an initial matter, it memorializes the pr…
Reconsidering the Role of Self-Respect in Rawls’sA Theory of Justice
In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls describes self-respect as "perhaps the most important" social primary good, and self-respect figures prominently in §82, the critical section where he distills his justification for the most controversial aspect of his conception of justice, the lexical priority of liberty. As such, his account of self-respect has drawn considerable attention, especially from critics, who argue that self-respect is not a suffici…
James Wilson versus the Bill of Rights: Progress, Popular Sovereignty, and the Idea of the U.S. Constitution
Americans today may take the Bill of Rights for granted, but its inclusion in the U.S. Constitution originally was controversial. To understand why, I turn to James Wilson, a leading statesman of the founding era and the chief opponent of the Bill of Rights. Among other things, Wilson thought a bill of rights would bind future generations to an incomplete list of rights and deprive them of the right to define individual rights over time. His argu…
The Publicola Debate and the Role of the French Revolution in American Constitutional Thought
This article analyzes the Publicola controversy, an early American debate that exposed lingering questions about the nature of American constitutionalism. The debate ignited when a young John Quincy Adams wrote a series of public letters that took direct aim at Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man, the definitive Anglo-American panegyric to the French Revolution. Writing under the pseudonym “Publicola,” Adams offered an extensive critique of Paine’s unde…
Therapeutic Politics: Rawls's Respect for Rousseau
For nearly half a century democratic citizens have been preoccupied with the search for self-respect. Though classical liberalism places this question outside its purview and many commentators see in such a concern evidence of a “thin-skinned” political culture, John Rawls has recently provided serious arguments for the political relevance of self-respect. These arguments, we claim, are deeply indebted to the social and political theory of Jean-J…
The Dead Hand of the Past? Toward an Understanding of “Constitutional Veneration
Conventional Wisdom: The Alternate Article V Mechanism for Proposing Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
Although all 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution were first approved by Congress and then ratified by the states, Article V of the Constitution also allows for “a convention for proposing amendments.” The convention mechanism has never been used, but frustration with the difficulty of getting amendments through Congress has pushed constitutional reformers to seriously consider this mode of amendment. That there is no precedent for an Article V…
James Wilson’s Science of Politics and the Moral Psychology of American Constitutionalism
We use James Wilson’s institutional science of politics as a lens for viewing his broader understanding of American constitutionalism. Wilson accepted the “Madisonian” view that government institutions should be designed to check humans’ vicious tendencies, both among the people and within government. But he also thought they could be carefully crafted to simultaneously encourage humans’ other-regarding passions and innate moral propensities, the…
Is “Constitutional Veneration” an Obstacle to Constitutional Amendment
Some constitutional scholars suggest that the US Constitution stands as one of the oldest yet least changed national constitutions in part because Americans’ tendency to “revere” the Constitution has left them unwilling to consider significant changes to the document. Several recent studies support aspects of this claim, but no study establishes a direct link between individuals’ respect for the Constitution and their reluctance to amend it. To a…
Amendment Culture in the United States: On the Nature and Effects of “Constitutional Veneration”
Political commentators have noted a peculiar aspect of present-day political dysfunction in the United States: Americans continue to “revere” the U.S. Constitution, even though the founding document itself is arguably responsible for many of the current political problems Americans so bemoan. On this telling, Americans’ tendency to view the Constitution as sacrosanct has significantly contributed to the precarious political moment by effectively …
Law (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · American Constitutional Law and Politics (9 works) · Judicial and Constitutional Studies (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Constitution (6 works) · Legal and Constitutional Studies (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Law and economics (5 works)