"The Constitution of the People": Reflections on Citizens and Civil Society / Edition 1

by Robert E. Calvert

Overview

To be a U.S. citizen is to be a member of a constitutional order that requires political unity but is also committed to social and cultural diversity. How do we solve the riddle of the one and the many? What is, in Tom Paine's words, "the constitution of the people"?

This is a perennial question that goes to the heart of American society and that increasingly shapes public debates about the health of our body politic. To answer it, Robert Calvert, a political scientist, has collected original essays by six distinguished scholars who are among the most influential interpreters of the American scene today.

The essays included in this book are united by the effort to understand America's identity in a way that does justice to the paradoxes and pluralities of its politics. Each seeks to find some middle ground between a government too intrusive and citizens too removed from public life, a balance between particular freedom and common purpose. Vigorously argued, lively, and accessible to the general reader, these essays challenge much of contemporary thought on the meaning of American constitutionalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700604784
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	06/26/1991
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

The Contributors

Preface

1. Introduction, Wilson Cary McWilliams

2. Adams and Jefferson on Slavery: Two Liberalisms and the Roots of Civic Ambivalence, J. David Greenstone

3. Citizenship, Diversity, and the Search for the Common Good, Robert N. Bellah

4. “In Common Together”: Unity, Diversity, and Civic Virtue, Jean Bethke Elshtain

5. How to Make a Republic Work: The Orginality of the Commercial Republicans, Michael Novak

6. Constitutional Rights and the Shape of Civil Society, Michael Walzer

7. Political "Realism" and the Progressive Degradation of Citizenship: A Quiet Constitutional Crisis, Robert E. Calvert

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Generally quite thoughtful in character and exhibiting a noteworthy clarity of expression, these essays make a valuable contribution to our understanding of the contemporary unraveling of American pluralism."—Review of Politics

"Robert Calvert has collected a set of remarkable, lively, and lucid papers in this volume. . . . The topic is important, the introduction is masterful, and each of the essays says something significant in a provocative and accessible manner. The collection itself illustrates how different points of view on similar topics can bring unity out of diversity."—Richard Dagger, coauthor of Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal

From the Publisher

An examination of American political life and culture by six distinguished scholars: J. David Greenstone, Robert N. Bellah, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Michael Novak, Michael Walzer, and Robert E. Calvert. The introduction is by Wilson Carey McWilliams. Four of the six essays were originally delivered as lectures at a Spring 1987 symposium at DePauw U. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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