Changes To Alabama Constitution May Soon Be In The Works

Constitutional reform will become a major topic in this pre-election year, as more citizens understand its key role in achieving Alabama’s potential, predicts Dr. Bailey Thomson, associate professor of journalism in The University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences.

“Alabamians have a chance to improve and modernize their state government, which now ranks among the nation’s least respected,” said Thomson. “Hope lies in a movement to rewrite the state’s inefficient and obsolete 1901constitution. For the past century, this document has put the interests of the few ahead of the needs and aspirations of the majority. Symptoms of this failed system are grossly unjust tax laws and the denial of self-rule to local governments.” But how might such change occur?

According to Thomson, the movement will attract more lawmakers in the next legislative session, and they will begin serious discussions of how reform can happen. In turn, this attention will alarm interest groups such as the Alabama Farmers Federation, which have long fattened on the special privileges they have helped write into the current constitution, Thomson says. “Watch for the emergence of less ambitious alternatives, such as merely cleaning up the messy 1901 document,” said Thomson. “Reformers will reject these half-measures and continue to demand a new document ­ one that will allow responsive and accountable government.”

Thomson predicts that Gov. Don Siegelman will come under more pressure to help lead this crusade to modernize Alabama. At some point, Thomson says, the governor has to become more than a “crafty politician” if he is to achieve for Alabama what he publicly advocates — namely, making our Alabama competitive globally. He and his successors will need more flexibility to respond to economic challenges that now come at lightning speed, such as the growth of Internet commerce. Meanwhile, a Republican challenger may see constitutional reform as the platform to challenge Siegelman’s claim to be Alabama’s first New South governor, he says.

“Constitutional reform will draw more women into civic and political life,” Thomson says. “A grass-roots movement will spotlight energy and natural ability, while providing female activists with experience in political and community organizing. They and other reformers will call on African-Americans to join them. After all, the 1901 constitution subjugated black Alabamians, and they have escaped its most oppressive features only through federal intervention and their own long struggle. If this movement does indeed inspire a moral as well as a political response, then look for it to become the key issue as Alabama enters the election year of 2002.”