A Revolution in Favor of Government

Origins of the U.S. Constitution and the Making of the American State
Erscheinungsjahr 2008
ISBN: 978-0-19-537416-2
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 336 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 526 g

In this trenchant new interpretation of America's origins, Max Edling shows 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 such as this, however, challenged the American people's deeply ingrained distrust of unduly concentrated authority. To secure the Constitution's adoption in the face of this inherent suspicion, the Federalists had to balance the formation of a powerful national government with the strong current of anti-statism in the American political tradition. They did so, Edling argues, 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. 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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Edling, Max M

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Politische Soziologie und Psychologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Politische Soziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Globalisierung
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Introduction: Beyond Madisonian Federalism

- Part One: Interpreting the Debate over Ratification

- 1: Legitimacy and Meaning: The Significance of Public Debate to the Adoption of the Constitution

- 2: The Elusive Meaning of the Debate over Ratification

- 3: European States, American Contexts

- 4: The Ideological Response to State Expansion

- Part Two: Military Powers

- 5: An Impotent Congress

- 6: Independence, Commerce, and Military Strength

- 7: A Government of Force

- 8: Government by Consent

- 9: The Federalists and the Uses of Military Powers

- Part Three: Fiscal Powers

- 10: Congressional Insolvency

- 11: Unlimited Taxation, Public Credit and the Strength of Government

- 12: The Costs of Government

- 13: A Government for Free

- 14: The Federalists and the Uses of Fiscal Powers

- Conclusion: The Constitution, the Federalists, and the American State

Über Autor(innen)

Max M. Edling is Research Fellow and University Lecturer, Uppsala University, Sweden.