: James H. Read
: Power versus Liberty Madison, Hamilton, Wilson, and Jefferson
: University of Virginia Press
: 9780813924601
: 1
: CHF 44.40
:
: Sonstiges
: English
Does every increase in the power of government entail a loss of liberty for thepeople? James H. Read examines how four key Founders--James Madison, Alexander Hamilton,James Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson--wrestled with this question during the first two decadesof the American Republic.Power versus Liberty reconstructs a four-wayconversation--sometim s respectful, sometimes shrill--that touched on the mostimportant issues facing the new nation: the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, federal authorityversus states' rights, freedom of the press, the controversial Bank of the United States, therelation between nationalism and democracy, and the elusive meaning of",the consent of thegoverned.",Each of the men whose thought Read considers differed on these keyquestions. Jefferson believed that every increase in the power of government came at the expense ofliberty: energetic governments, he insisted, are always oppressive. Madison believed that this viewwas too simple, that liberty can be threatened either by too much or too little governmental power. Hamilton and Wilson likewise rejected the Jeffersonian view of power and liberty but disagreed withMadison and with each other.The question of how to reconcile energetic governmentwith the liberty of citizens is as timely today as it was in the first decades of the Republic. Itpervades our political discourse and colors our readings of events from the confrontation at Waco tothe Oklahoma City bombing to Congressional debate over how to spend the government surplus. Whilethe rhetoric of both major political parties seems to posit a direct relationship between the sizeof our government and the scope of our political freedoms, the debates of Madison, Hamilton, Wilson,and Jefferson confound such simple dichotomies. As Read concludes, the relation between power andliberty is inherently complex.