The Constitutional Succession Factor

Relative to other western countries the political climate in America tends to be more to the right. What I mean by that is business friendly, rather than worker-friendly. There is a factor in how left or right the politics in a western-style democracy will be that I cannot see referred to anywhere. It is the age of the nation's constitution.

America gained it's independence just before the French Revolution brought about modern France. The present government of France is referred to as the "Fifth Republic". What this means is that France is on it's fifth constitution since the revolution.

America, in contrast, has the same constitution that it had since the beginning. What America does, instead of a periodic updated constitution, is amending the constitution through constitutional amendments. The important difference is that America's constitutional amendments do not require much in the way of public input, while new constitutions in other democracies do.

America's constitution was written before the era of big business began. The "Robber Baron" era would come a century later. When the constitution was written most Americans were farmers, craftsmen and, shopkeepers. The constitution is focused on protecting Americans from tyranny in government, not from exploitation by big business.

Business in America has traditionally had more of a free reign. In democracies with newer constitutions, in contrast, the focus tends to be on protection from both government tyranny and big business. France, with it's more recent constitution, is an example of generally being more leftward, or supportive of the people, than America.

We may think of Europe as being the "Old World" and the western hemisphere as being the "New World" but the social order in Europe is actually from the postwar era and is thus newer. When it's constitutions were written big business was a major factor in society. As we might expect it's constitutions are more about protecting people from big business, generally as both employees and consumers, than that of America.

As time went on, in the western democracies, tyranny by government has become less likely while exploitation by business, if allowed, has become more likely. The old U.S. Constitution wasn't written with this in mind and the U.S. just doesn't periodically start over with a new constitution.

Today Americans have rights. The government is built around a system of checks and balances. A president can be removed, if necessary. People accused of a crime are to be presumed innocent until proven guilty and can only be tried once for a given crime, if found not guilty. 

There are minimum wage laws, working hour limitations, workplace safety regulations and, unemployment insurance. There are laws against child labor and mandatory public education until age 16. Public assistance can be applied for, if necessary.

But only the first three were provided by the U.S. Constitution. The rest were brought about by social movements and were not guaranteed by the constitution. This is primarily because the constitution was written before most people were working for employers, before the era of big business.

The newer constitutions of other democracies tend to take this into account and thus tend to be further leftward.