Read the text and explain why the ratification of the Constitution was a complicated process.

The rock upon which a democratic government rests is its Constitution – the formal statement of its fundamental obligations, limitations, procedures and institutions. The Constitution of the country is the supreme law of the land and all citizens are subjects to its provisions. At a minimum, the Constitution, which is usually codified in a single written document, establishes the authority of the national government, provides guarantees for fundamental human rights and sets forth the government’s basic operating procedures.

Despite their enduring, monumental qualities, Constitutions must be capable of change and adaptation. The world’s oldest written Constitution is that of the United States. It consists of seven brief articles and twenty-seven amendments.

The most significant features of the US Constitution are the establishment of the rule of law (which implies that every person is subject to the law), the creation of a federal system with a supreme national government, the separation of governmental powers into three branches that check and balance each other, its flexibility and the establishment of a republican form of government.

The Constitution is considered the supreme law of the land both because of its content and because its authority is derived from the people. The concepts and ideas of the Constitution are the “higher law” in the USA, things which the government cannot create or destroy. Among these concepts and ideas is the notion that the people are sovereign and that legitimate governments must be based on popular consent. As the Constitution was ratified by the representatives of the people, it is a document in both word and deed, created by and for “we, the people”.

Though the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, most of the specific, day-today rules and regulations that bring order to American society are not included in the Constitution itself. These “ordinary” laws are the creations of the Congress, state legislatures and city councils. But the notion that laws are more important than the opinions of individual people – even important people – applies to these laws as well. In America no one is considered to be above the law.

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