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Constitutions are amended all the time. The French even have a proces for reboots of the Republic. These are goods things.

• puzzledobserver 1y ago
  The Indian Supreme Court introduced the Basic Structure Doctrine in 1970, allowing the judiciary to overrule constitutional amendments if they are found to contradict the "basic structure" of the constitution. It's original purpose, if I understand correctly, was to guarantee that fundamental rights were an essential part of the constitution and couldn't be amended away. Wikipedia says that multiple countries appear to have adopted the principle: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Uganda.
• landl0rd 1y ago
  No it's not. Constitutions are the bones of a republic. They are the framework that gives the government power and that checks that power. Letting it mess with that too much or too often is bad. Constitutions should be simple. They should delegate very little power to governments and focus mostly on constraining those governments. They should be changed very rarely. Adaptable government with changing scopes belongs at lower levels of governance (mostly very local) or nowhere.
  • maigret 1y ago
    France disagrees. They iterated 5 times on it and it fixed big flaws each time. What keeps a country in check is not a constitution but a politically informed and active population. The US shows us right now that the constitution is just a piece of paper.
    • landl0rd 1y ago
      France had a vastly bloodier path to that constitution as you know. And france’s constitution today is pretty bad. It fails to protect basic freedoms like speech and arms. It moves too much responsibility to the feds. Etc.
    • AnthonyMouse 1y ago
      > The US shows us right now that the constitution is just a piece of paper. A constitution isn't just words, it creates a structure that exists in actual reality. The day before the tyrant comes you have multiple branches and levels of government. That stuff doesn't instantaneously cease to exist if they try to rip up the piece of paper, and its purpose is to fight against anyone who tries to rip it up. If it fails at that purpose, your constitution contained insufficient checks and balances.(Notice that several of the ones in the original US constitution have been removed, and that was a mistake.)
      • brnt 1y ago
        Another way to view the US constitution is that parts were amended away in roundabout ways (e.g. through state legislation) and precisely because it is so set in stone that we now have the problems that we see.
• tekla 1y ago
  Constitutions that are easy to amend are basically universally a piece of toilet paper.