Consent for change: Article V and the Constitutional amendment process

The political economy of U.S. constitutional amendments within the guidelines of Article V is shown to tend toward minoritarianism. Specifically, two shifts reduce the consent necessary to pass amendments, each potentially raising the social costs of changing the Constitution by amendment. A typology of amending "climates" is offered, followed by a discussion of the normative implications for constitutional stability of minoritarian rule in amendment politics. © 1997 Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston.