Question

What did Woodrow Wilson mean when he said that the Constitution is best understood NOT as a machine but as a living thing?

Answer 1

Answer:

Woodrow Wilson meant D) it is constantly adapting and changing.

Explanation:

Woodrow Wilson was a former president of the United States and a political scientist. In his Constitutional Government in the United States, Wilson argues that the constitution is seen as Newtonian, when it should be seen as Darwinian, in his opinion. What he means is that the constitution should be able to change, to adapt to a new environment and necessity. If it remains frozen in time, it is bound to limit the government in harmful ways. As a Progressive, Wilson wants the constitution to be seen as a living thing, a thing that needs to evolve to keep on being meaningful. The lines below are excerpts from his argument:

The trouble with the theory is that government is not a machine, but a living thing. It falls, not under the theory of the universe, but under the theory of organic life. It is accountable to Darwin, not to Newton. It is modified by its environment, necessitated by its tasks, shaped to its functions by the sheer pressure of life.

All that progressives ask or desire is permission—in an era when "development," "evolution," is the scientific word—to interpret the Constitution according to the Darwinian principle; all they ask is recognition of the fact that a nation is a living thing and not a machine.

Answer 2

Its constantly changing and adapting. Hope that helps