Why ratify? How the progressive amendments to the Constitution were ratified then, and what that process means to us now.

This dissertation presents evidence to show that the tradition of elevating constitutional over ordinary politics erroneously distinguishes amendments as largely motivated by ideology or civic virtue from ordinary law as mostly motivated by self-interest. Constitutional politics are not necessarily more ideological or more motivated by civic virtue than ordinary politics. Rather, constitutional politics and ordinary politics are two different methods of accomplishing political change. This dissertation examines ratification in state legislatures of the 16th through 19th amendments, as well as the amendment to prohibit child labor, proposed in 1924. A model is presented to systematically compare ratification outcomes and their diffusion patterns. This model is estimated using both probit and duration techniques. It is supplemented by case study analysis of Texas, the quickest to ratify the amendments on average, and Connecticut, the slowest. Explanatory variables include two measures of reform (direct democracy and the progressive vote), two measures of economic interests (urbanization and per capita income), two cultural variables (Catholic, and evangelical Protestant), a measure of partisanship, and a region indicator. Model estimates show that the explanation for ratification is different for each of the amendments, and each represents a mixture of ideology, economics, morality, partisanship, and region. Although the dimensions were different, the common process, requiring concurrence of two-thirds of both houses of Congress and legislators in three-quarters of the states, resulted in two principles of similarity. First, successful constitutional reform requires some institution--e.g., parties or interest groups--to carry the reform through Congress and state legislatures. Second, ratification of constitutional amendments presents a collective action problem for supporters that is different from passage of statutes. The concepts that explain ratification outcomes for the amendments of the Progressive era are applied to earlier as well as contemporary proposals for amendment.PhDPolitical ScienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/105090/1/9635512.pdfDescription of 9635512.pdf : Restricted to UM users only