Reflections on Skowronek’s “The Adaptability Paradox”

I’m sorry I didn’t participate in the symposium on Stephen Skowronek’s challenging new book, “The Adaptability Paradox.” Skowronek probes in detail whether the Constitution’s commitments, especially to separation of powers and federalism, are maladapted to the democratized world created by the “rights revolution” of the 1960s. As he says, “At the center of the analysis is a trade-off between wide political inclusion and the structural integrity of the Constitution.” (TAP, vii-ix) This trade-off is expressed by the “adaptability paradox.” Because I lack Skowronek’s concise and mannered means of expression, I’ll try to state the paradox in my own words. The idea is that voiding the undemocratic parts of the Constitution in service of democratic principles yielded a new kind of inclusive regime which had no precedent in American history. Further, the ultimate consistency of this regime with the parts of the Constitution that remained after this makeover is, at the least, untested and at…