Foreword: Technological Change, Constitutional Flexibility, and Regime Stability

Mark Graber

The generation responsible for the Constitution of the United States believed that they were establishing a regime that would easily incorporate technological change. By broadly defining national powers, the Framers enabled the national legislature to take advantage of the ways new technologies might advance national goals. Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist Papers, No. 23 maintained that constitutional powers to secure the national defense, prevent internal disruption, regulate interstate and foreign commerce, and oversee relations with foreign nations:

ought to exist without limitation, because it is impossible to foresee or define the extent and variety of national exigencies, or the correspondent extent and variety of the means which may be necessary to satisfy them. The circumstances that endanger the safety of nations are infinite, and for this reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be imposed on the power to which the care of it is committed.