Reconstructing the commercial republic : constitutional design after Madison
"James Madison is the thinker most responsible for laying the groundwork for the American commercial republic. But he did not anticipate that the propertied class on which he relied would become extraordinarily politically powerful at the same time that its interests narrowed. These flaws, argues Stephen L. Elkin, have undermined the delicately balanced system Madison constructed. In Reconstructing the Commercial Republic, Elkin critiques the Madisonian system, revealing which of its aspects have withstood the test of time and which have not." "The deficiencies Elkin points out provide the starting point for his own constitutional theory of the republic - a theory that, unlike Madison's, lays out a substantive conception of the public interest that emphasizes the power of institutions to shape our political, economic, and civic lives. Elkin argues that his theory should guide us toward building a commercial republic that is rooted in a politics of the public interest and the self-interest of the middle class. He then recommends specific reforms to create this kind of republic, asserting that Americans today can still have the lives a commercial republic is intended to promote: lives with real opportunities for economic prosperity, republican political self-government, and individual liberty."--Jacket
xiii, 413 pages ; 24 cm
9780226201344, 0226201341
62341534
RECONSTRUCTING THE COMMERCIAL REPUBLIC
Constitutional Design after MadisonBy Stephen L. Elkin
The University of Chicago Press
Copyright © 2006 The University of ChicagoAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-20134-4
Contents
Preface...........................................................................xi1 Thinking Constitutionally in Light of American Aspirations......................1Part I: Madison and Constitutional Thinking2 The Madisonian Commercial Republic..............................................193 Flaws in the Madisonian Theory..................................................514 Political Regimes and Political Rationality.....................................74Part II: The Political Constitution of a Commercial Republic5 The Public Interest.............................................................1196 A Public Interest Politics I....................................................1477 A Public Interest Politics II...................................................1798 Class and Self-Interest in the American Commercial Republic.....................2179 Thinking Constitutionally About the American Republic...........................25110 A Modest Program for Republicans (with a small "r")............................275Notes.............................................................................307Bibliography......................................................................371Index.............................................................................395
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