A Revolution in Favor of Government:: Origins of the U.S. Constitution and the Making of the American State

Přední strana obálky
OUP USA, 9. 10. 2003 - Počet stran: 333
What were the intentions of the Founders? Was the American constitution designed to protect individual rights? To limit the powers of government? To curb the excesses of democracy? Or to create a robust democratic nation-state? These questions echo through today's most heated legal and political debates.
In this powerful new interpretation of America's origins, Max Edling argues that the Federalists were primarily concerned with building a government that could act vigorously in defense of American interests. The Constitution transferred the powers of war making and resource extraction from the states to the national government thereby creating a nation-state invested with all the important powers of Europe's eighteenth-century "fiscal-military states." A strong centralized government, however, challenged the American people's deeply ingrained distrust of unduly concentrated authority. To secure the Constitution's adoption the Federalists had to accommodate the formation of a powerful national government to the strong current of anti-statism in the American political tradition. They did so by designing a government that would be powerful in times of crisis, but which would make only limited demands on the citizenry and have a sharply restricted presence in society. The Constitution promised the American people the benefit of government without its costs.
Taking advantage of a newly published letterpress edition of the constitutional debates, A Revolution in Favor of Government recovers a neglected strand of the Federalist argument, making a persuasive case for rethinking the formation of the federal American state.
 

Obsah

LEGITIMACY AND MEANING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PUBLIC DEBATE TO THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION
15
THE ELUSIVE MEANING OF THE DEBATE OVER RATIFICATION
31
EUROPEAN STATES AMERICAN CONTEXTS
47
THE IDEOLOGICAL RESPONSE TO STATE EXPANSION
59
AN IMPOTENT CONGRESS
73
INDEPENDENCE COMMERCE AND MILITARY STRENGTH
89
A GOVERNMENT OF FORCE
101
GOVERNMENT BY CONSENT
115
CONGRESSIONAL INSOLVENCY
149
UNLIMITED TAXATION PUBLIC CREDIT AND THE STRENGTH OF GOVERNMENT
163
THE COSTS OF GOVERNMENT
175
A GOVERNMENT FOR FREE
191
THE FEDERALISTS AND THE USES OF FISCAL POWERS
206
THE CONSTITUTION THE FEDERALISTS AND THE AMERICAN STATE
219
NOTES
231
INDEX
315

THE FEDERALISTS AND THE USES OF MILITARY POWERS
129

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Strana 13 - ... whether societies of men are really capable or not, of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident ;o and force.
Strana 5 - RESOLVED, That the preceding Constitution be laid before the United States, in Congress assembled, and that it is the opinion of this Convention, that it should afterwards be submitted to a Convention of Delegates, chosen in each State by the people thereof, under the recommendation of its Legislature, for their assent and ratification...
Strana 10 - PRESIDENT, I confess, that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present; but, Sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it; for, having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise.
Strana 5 - Congress it is expedient that on the second Monday in May next a convention of delegates, who shall have been appointed by the several States, be held at Philadelphia for the sole and express purpose of revising the articles of Confederation and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States, render the federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation of the...

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O autorovi (2003)

Max M. Edling is at Cornell University.

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