Describing the Constitution as a promise obscures institutional power.

Evidence

To think, for example, of the Constitution of the United States as a “promise,” however defamiliarizing that description may be, is somehow to adopt a perspective on it from which the force of institutions (and of Althusser Ideological State Apparatuses) seems oddly invisible. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 504

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatuses and to my own knowledge of constitutional originalism debates where the ‘promise’ framing is common. — connects to: Trust in legal doctrine overstates the Constitution’s role in transparency. — David E Pozen; Michael Schudson, Troubling Transparency- The History and…, 291; Constitutional declarations of political principles signal their impotence, not their power — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 921; Constitutional sense is worthless without the class power able to enforce it — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 254 (+3 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Trust in legal doctrine overstates the Constitution’s role in transparency. — David E Pozen; Michael Schudson, Troubling Transparency- The History and…, 291; Constitutional declarations of political principles signal their impotence, not their power — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 921; Constitutional sense is worthless without the class power able to enforce it — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 254 (+3 more)