In Defense of the Assembly

In: PS: political science & politics, Band 4, Heft 3, S. 360-361

Abstract

The draft constitution for the Association, presented to us by the Constitutional Revision Committee, responds to a widely expressed desire for assurance that our officers are representative of our membership. We live in a time of increasing demands on all of our institutions, including those of the APSA, An important purpose in devising workable democratic forms is therefore to insure that those who make these demands do not feel that they have been unheard because of biases in their institutions of government. Although this is not the only purpose of our constitution, it is an important one, and the central one that the framers of the proposed draft seem to have had in mind. I do not believe that this purpose can easily be attained by other alternatives before us, including our present constitution.