What is a federal constitution?

A federal constitution is a document that is drafted and
ratified for the purpose of stating as precisely as possible the relationship of the
federal government to the governed -- in effect, the people -- and the relationship of
the federal government to the individual political entities (the States) that
collectively comprise the nation.  One of the more intractable issues with which the
authors of the U.S. Constitution had to contend, as well as those who debated the draft
presented to them, was the relationship of the states, the original 13 colonies, to the
central, or federal, government.  The issue of "states' rights" was deeply intertwined
with the issue of slavery, with mostly southern states arguing for the right to make
decisions on matters such as this for themselves without interference from the federal
government.  The federal government, as it would years later be embodied in the person
of President Lincoln, argued, conversely, that the nation could not withstand the kinds
of divisions that issues like slavery would inevitably entail, and that the elimination
of the institution of slavery was imperative for both the broader nation's moral
legitimacy and for the unification of the country.  The threat to constitutional
democracy posed by the institution of slavery was such that the federal government felt
compelled to force the South to comply with the notion of abolition.
 

A federal constitution is intended to definitively
resolve such questions. Divisions that existed between the two major regions comprising
the newly-established United States of America proved elusive to those charged with
debating and ratifying the Constitution, and the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution,
ratified at the end of 1791, was an attempt at resolving the issue by declaring that any
subject not addressed in the Constitution was left to the states to resolve as they saw
fit -- an addition that has definitely concluded the debate about States' rights.
 

In conclusion, a federal constitution is the document
that, by definition, enjoys the legitimacy of the governed, and that spells out the
rights of the governed relative to the government the document is establishing.  It may
or may not specify divisions of responsibility, or establish a "separation of powers"
between branches of government, as does the U.S. Constitution, but it does set the
framework for the structure of the central government while specifying, to the extent
possible, the relationship of government to governed.