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Constitutional Government    For authors, proponents, and
critics of the Constitution alike, no principle was more
fundamental than that such an instrument was indispensable for
those hoping to live safe and happy lives. It has been said that
the Age of Enlightenment might more properly be called the Age
of Constitutions. But that age's thinkers came to their
definitions of a constitution only gradually and haltingly and
without ever reaching consensus. Indeed, for all their
preoccupation with the making of constitutions, they did not
speak of "constitutionalism." We, by contrast, can hardly do
without the term or the distinction it implies. Today, every
nation-state hardy enough to issue its own postage stamps sports
a constitution. Rarely does one not lay claim to being governed
according to the rule of law; and more rare is the tyrant who
cannot point to his shiny little constitution. Today,
accordingly, we are obliged to ask whether what purports to be