Republican Institutionalism for a “Government of Laws”

The Polybian Political Science of John Adams

Bibliographic Data

ID13044519
AuthorsB H Peterson (corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume8
Issue3
Pages323-346
Publication date2019-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Political Thought (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2161-1580 • E-ISSN: 2161-1599
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/704528
OpenAlexW2963011371
LanguageEN
References cited19

John Adams’s political thought, notably in the influential first volume to his Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States (1787), expressed what may justly be termed a Polybian political science. His Polybian political science formed the basis for a republican institutionalism, an emphasis on well-ordered constitutions to balance competing social orders in society and guard against excessive influence of the “natural aristocracy.” Adams’s contributions to the American constitutional tradition reveal that the debate over the structure of the legislature in the American state and national constitutions was a debate about the foundations of human nature and the lessons of history. Further, his republican institutionalism challenges the assertion that the American founding was essentially liberal in the Lockean sense, suggesting instead a rich synthesis of classical, medieval, and modern ideas

Assertion · Institutionalism · Legislature · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Historical Studies in Latin America · Law · Political Theory and Influence

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