Ronald Reagan and the Politics of Freedom

By (author) Andrew E. Busch

Publication date:

05 September 2001

Length of book:

352 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

235x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780742520523

In Ronald Reagan and the Politics of Freedom, Andrew E. Busch goes beyond economic and foreign policies to examine Reagan’s understanding of statesmanship. Busch analyzes Reagan's conscious attempt to strengthen the separation of powers, federalism, and traditional rhetoric, and his efforts to revive the notion of limited government in a Constitutional Republic. In this important new study, Busch concludes that Ronald Reagan’s politics of freedom—found in his discourse, policy, and coalition-building—achieved significant successes in the 1980s and beyond.
Busch makes a powerful case, based on impeccable research, that Reagan was a statesman of high rank, with a coherent and intelligent vision of human liberty. His presidency successfully challenged the dominant liberalism of his time by returning to the Founders’ constitutionalism, based on principles of rational liberty, equality of individual rights, and government by consent of the governed.