After the King: Thomas Paine's and James Madison's Institutional Liberalism

Andreas Kalyvas; Ira Katznelson

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511790782.004

4 - After the King: Thomas Paine's and James Madison's Institutional Liberalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012

Andreas Kalyvas and

Ira Katznelson

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Andreas Kalyvas: Affiliation:
New School for Social Research, New York
Ira Katznelson: Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York

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Summary

The relationship between republicanism and liberalism that was so central to the theoretical explorations of Adam Smith and Adam Ferguson was transformed into a demanding practical and historical political endeavor for the founders of the American republic. Rather than reflect on hypothetical possibilities, James Madison, Thomas Paine, and their colleagues moved the question of whether a republic could be built for modern times into a concrete political project. A luminous generation of revolutionaries grappled with how a persistent commitment to the classical republican tradition could guide their choices and actions. Pursuing this path, they confronted issues and challenges already identified by prior thinkers, as they turned to the design of institutions to secure a viable and enduring free government.

The creation of the American republic is a decisive site for understanding how republican themes and ideas turned in a liberal direction. Key theoretical works, written in the midst of this unprecedented situation, highlight the conceptual changes and institutional innovations that were advanced as the globe's first modern republic became the world's most archetypical liberal democracy. As it unfolded, this complex undertaking became the explicit and focused object of an almost obsessive analysis by the period's leading thinkers and political actors.

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Type: Chapter
Information: Liberal Beginnings
Making a Republic for the Moderns
, pp. 88 - 117

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511790782.004 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2008

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