Harvard government professor Beer traces the evolution of American
federalism and, with scholary zeal, reilluminates the eternal
state-vs.-central-government debate. The Constitution, according to
Beer, "displays much blank space," and, to understand it, it's
necessary to look at the tradition behind it. Beer has a threefold
aim here: to trace the intellectual evolution that sought to sweep
away the "dark ribaldry of hereditary, indefeasible right," in John
Adams's phrase; to look at American federalism in light of the
ideas behind the failed English Commonwealth of the 17th century;
and to examine federalist ideas in terms of the challenges to them
over the past two centuries. Beer offers lengthy discussions of the
usual suspects, from Madison, whose Federalist Papers are a
cohesive statement of the philosophy he favored, to Montesquieu,
who felt that popular government was unworkable in a diverse and
fragmented country. But the author also enlists Milton, whose
Areopagitica championed flee speech and who envisioned a government
by discussion rather than by fiat, and little-known writers such as
James Harrington and James Wilson. The author is an expert on
English politics, and his sections on such thinkers as Harrington,
whose vision of federalism was a precursor to the American version
in that he argued that government derives authority from the will
of the people, are especially good. And Beer's discussion of the
debate over federalism in this country is a valuable summation of a
seemingly almost medieval doctrinal wrangle. Beer's fresh approach
sometimes grades into obscurity, but, still, this is an erudite and
forceful work, packed with the scholarship of a lifetime. (Kirkus
Reviews)
Lyndon Johnson heralded a "new federalism", as did Ronald Reagan.
It was left to the public to puzzle out what such a proclamation,
coming from both ends of the political spectrum, could possibly
mean. Of one thing we can be certain: theories of federalism, in
whatever form they take, are still shaping our nation. The origin
of these theories - what they meant to history and how they apply
to day - becomes clear in this book by one of our most
distinguished writers on political thought. The great English
republicans of the seventeenth century appear in this story along
with their American descendants, who took the European idea of a
federal republic and recast it as new and unique. Samuel Beer's
extraordinary knowledge of European political thought, displayed
especially in discussions of Thomas Aquinas and James Harrington,
allows him to show at every turn the historical precedents and the
originality of American federalism in theory and practice. In deft
comparisons with Hume, Burke, Blackstone, and Montesquieu, the
familiar figures of Madison and Hamilton emerge with new substance
and depth, while some who would seem fully known by now, such as
Ben Franklin, reveal unsuspected dimensions, and others, such as
James Wilson, are lifted from obscurity. Beer uses this history to
highlight the contrast between the nation-centered federalism of
the framers of the Constitution and the state-centered federalism
of its opponents. His concern is not only with historical origins
but, more important, with a conflict of ideas which reaches far
into our history and continues on to this day. The result is the
clearest articulation ever given of the provenance and purpose of
the ideas of nationalismand federalism in American political
philosophy. A masterpiece of historical and political analysis,
this book provides an innovative interpretive framework for
understanding democracy and the American Constitution.
General
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