To Make a Nation: The Rediscovery of American Federalism
In lucid, elegant prose, Beer, an eminent Harvard political scientist, inquires into the "national theory" of American federalism. "Federalism," he warns us, "is not a humdrum matter of public administration but a serious question of political philosophy." In Beer's view, national theory emerged as a conscious choice, not an historical accident; he persuasively rejects competing claims of "compact theory," which holds that the states, not the people, created the Constitution. A highly readable intellectual political history in the tradition of Lawrence J. R. Herson's The Politics of Ideas: Politics, Theory and American Public Policy (Waveland Pr., 1990), Beer's work clarifies the ideas of Montesquieu, Milton, Machiavelli, and Madison, among others, that shaped our nation and that continue to provide a framework for government today. Recommended for government collections in large public and all academic libraries.- Grace Franklin, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OhioCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.