Covenant Polity And Constitutionalism

Co-published with the Center for the Study of Federalism. Contents: From the Editors; The Political Theory of Covenant: Biblical Origins and Modern Developments by Daniel J. Elazar; Influential Models of Political Association in the Western Tradition by John Kincaid; Questions of Path and Questions of Covenant by John F.A. Taylor; The Process of Covenant by Gordon M. Freeman; Hobbes, Covenant, and Constitution by Vincent Ostrom; From Covenant to Constitution in American Political Thought by Donald S. Lutz; Covenant and the Federal Constitution by Neal Riemer; The Impact of Covenant and Contract Theories on Conceptions of the U.S. Constitutions by Rozann Rothman; The Founding of American Local Communities: A Study of Covenantal and Other Forms of Associations by Stephen L. Schechter.

This volume traces the trends and the developing relationships of constitutionalism and covenant that ultimately led to the transformation of the latter into the former. Elazar explores the paths that emerged out of the constitutionalized covenantal tradition in Europe such as federalism, communitarianism, and the cooperative movement.

The essence of the covenant tradition is the idea of human beings freely associating for common purposes through pacts of mutual commitment. In the political realm, the idea of covenant has been particularly influential in frontierlands. Reinformed by the idea of the federated commonwealth that emerged out of the Protestant Reformation, covenant eventually fostered the establishment of the United States of America and our modern idea of federalism. More recently, these great products of the covenant tradition helped to bring about the collapse of twentieth-century totalitarianism and fueled a new spirit in contemporary political life throughout the world. A return to political covenantalism seems to be an appropriate response to the crisis of modern civilization and the new epoch after World War II. Covenant and Civil Society is the final volume in Elazar's monumental series The Covenant Tradition in Politics. In it, he traces the tradition's rebirth and development in the modern epoch.Covenant and Civil Society also considers issues of communal solidarity on a postmodern basis. Elazar traces the transition from the covenanted commonwealth of the Protestant Reformation to the civil society of the modern epoch, and explores the covenant's role in the modern statist era and the development of modern democracy. Scandiriavia, and the Latin-Germanic borderlands, many of which are typically thought of as examples of organic or hierarchical models. Elazar argues that a covenantal model is more appropriate and is part of the Western tradition as such.The book concludes with examination of the present and future of covenantal thought. Today, the global spread of federalism, most clearly seen in the formation of the European Union, is also seen in local and private arenas. Elazar considers the benefits of covenantal thought while balancing such optimism with a realistic sense of its limits. As a prescription for change, Covenant and Civil Society is a fundamental and original contribution. Along with the previous volumes in this series, all available from Transaction, it will be of deep interest to historians, social scientists, political theorists, and theologians of all persuasions.

In this first volume of a trilogy, Daniel J. Elazar addresses political uses of the idea of covenant, the tradition that has adhered to that idea, and the political arrangements that flow from it, Among the topics covered are covenant as a political concept, the Bible as a political commentary, the post-biblical tradition, medieval covenant theory, and Jewish political culture.

In this first volume of a trilogy, Daniel J. Elazar addresses political uses of the idea of covenant, the tradition that has adhered to that idea, and the political arrangements that flow from it, Among the topics covered are covenant as a political concept, the Bible as a political commentary, the post-biblical tradition, medieval covenant theory, and Jewish political culture.

The idea of covenant was at the heart of early New England society. In this singular book David Weir explores the origins and development of covenant thought in America by analyzing the town and church documents written and signed by seventeenth-century New Englanders. Unmatched in the breadth of its scope, this study takes into account all of the surviving covenants in all of the New England colonies. Weir's comprehensive survey of seventeenth-century covenants leads to a more complex picture of early New England than what emerges from looking at only a few famous civil covenants like the Mayflower Compact. His work shows covenant theology being transformed into a covenantal vision for society but also reveals the stress and strains on church-state relationships that eventually led to more secularized colonial governments in eighteenth-century New England. He concludes that New England colonial society was much more "English" and much less "American" than has often been thought, and that the New England colonies substantially mirrored religious and social change in Old England.

The Great Frontier presents a new theory of the history of the Western World since 1492 when Columbus opened the frontier lands to a static European society.

The political changes which have occurred in the last three years have been phenomenal--the dissolving of the former Soviet Union, the impending union of Western Europe, and the evolution of democracy in Eastern Europe. What changes have occurred in the legal structure of these countries? How have their constitutions been affected by these developments? Stanley Katz, Douglas Greenberg, and other scholars and politicians from numerous countries discuss in this work the experiences of constitutionalism. Previously, little work has been done in this field, but now Constitutionalism and Democracy represents the range and depth for serious constitutional analysis. Discussing concrete issues such as human rights, nationalism, and pluralism, this volume will be essential in understanding the phenomenon of constitutionalism in various parts of the world.