American Government › Section B · The Constitution › Topic B.5
Changing the Constitution
The framers had seen a government fail because it could not be changed, so they built in a way to amend the Constitution while making it deliberately hard. Formal amendments, court rulings and political practice have all reshaped the document since 1789.
In this topic
- Built to change, but not easily
- Article V: two steps, two routes each
- Worked example: the arithmetic of Article V
- The Bill of Rights
- The Reconstruction amendments
- Widening democracy and adjusting the machinery
- Slow and unfinished amendments
- Informal change
- Debates over interpretation
- Worked example: direct election of senators
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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