Essays In Federalism

Classic Books Library presents this brand new edition of “The Federalist Papers”, a collection of separate essays and articles compiled in 1788 by Alexander Hamilton. Following the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, the governing doctrines and policies of the States lacked cohesion. “The Federalist”, as it was previously known, was constructed by American statesman Alexander Hamilton, and was intended to catalyse the ratification of the United States Constitution. Hamilton recruited fellow statesmen James Madison Jr., and John Jay to write papers for the compendium, and the three are known as some of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Alexander Hamilton (c. 1755–1804) was an American lawyer, journalist and highly influential government official. He also served as a Senior Officer in the Army between 1799-1800 and founded the Federalist Party, the system that governed the nation’s finances. His contributions to the Constitution and leadership made a significant and lasting impact on the early development of the nation of the United States.

Taylor is one of the world's pre-eminent experts on Hegel and brings to his reflections on nationalism and federalism the fruits of a more universal philosophical discourse rooted in the Enlightenment and before. Its hallmarks are terms such as recognition, self-determination, atomism, and modernity. Notwithstanding his long involvement in philosophical reflections, Taylor has avoided the role of the disengaged intellectual, always remaining close to political action and debate in Canada. To his philosophical discourse, therefore, is added a sensitive knowledge of Quebec society from the vantage point of an English-speaking citizen with profound roots within it. Taylor suggests that it will be necessary to think in terms of deep diversity if Canada is to stay together in the twenty-first century. Eight of the essays, published between 1965 and 1992, are drawn from the Queen's Quarterly, edited scholarly books, a research study for the MacDonald Commission on Canada's Economic and Political Future, and an English translation of his submission to Quebec's Bélanger-Campeau Commission. The concluding paper was written specially for this volume.

Bringing together the best of Reg Whitaker's essays on democracy, federalism, and the state, A Sovereign Idea will be essential reading for anyone interested in the rise of the idea of democracy in Canada. The essays, each in its own way, are an attempt to discover how a more democratic Canada can be achieved.

The Federalist is considered the most important work on statecraft and political theory ever written by Americans. Seventy-seven of the 85 essays that make up the work appeared in New York newspapers between October 1787 and May 1788 under the pseudonym "Publius." The eight additional essays first appeared in the second volume of the work presented here, and in the newspapers later in 1788. Principally written by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, with some assistance from John Jay, the primary purpose of the essays was to convince the citizens of New York to elect to a state ratifying convention delegates who would favor the new United States Constitution, adopted in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. The essays were rushed into print in book form in two volumes in the spring of 1788, numbers 1-39 as volume 1 on March 22, and numbers 40-85 as volume 2 on May 28. Together these essays, often referred to as The Federalist Papers, form one of the great classics of government, the principal themes of which are federalism, checks and balances, separated powers, pluralism, and popular representation. In part because Hamilton and Madison were important participants in the Philadelphia convention, The Federalist became the most authoritative interpretation of what the drafters of the Constitution intended, one that continues to influence the development and interpretation of American constitutional law. Presented here is Thomas Jefferson's personal copy of the first edition of The Federalist, with notes in his hand indicating his understanding regarding the authorship of each essay. Hamilton left an authorship list with his lawyer before his fatal duel with Aaron Burr, and Madison identified the writer of each essay in his copy of The Federalist. None of these lists agree, and authorship of some of the essays is still being debated by scholars. The New York convention met in Poughkeepsie in June 1788 and on July 26 voted in favor of ratification by the narrow margin of 30 to 27.

The framers of the U. S. Constitution focused intently on the difficulties of achieving a workable middle ground between national and local authority. They located that middle ground in a new form of federalism that James Madison called the "compound republic." The term conveys the complicated and ambiguous intent of the framing generation and helps to make comprehensible what otherwise is bewildering to the modern citizenry: a form of government that divides and disperses official power between majorities of two different kinds—one composed of individual voters, and the other, of the distinct political societies we call states. America's federalism is the subject of this collection of essays by Martha Derthick, a leading scholar of American government. She explores the nature of the compound republic, with attention both to its enduring features and to the changes wrought in the twentieth century by Progressivism, the New Deal, and the civil rights revolution. Interest in federalism is likely to increase in the wake of the 2000 presidential election. There are demands for reform of the electoral college, given heightened awareness that it does not strictly reflect the popular vote. The U. S. Supreme Court, under Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, has mounted an explicit and controversial defense of federalism, and new nominees to the Court are likely to be questioned on that subject and appraised in part by their responses. Derthick's essays invite readers to join the Court in weighing the contemporary importance of federalism as an institution of government.