Designing a Polity

America's Constitution in Theory and Practice

By (author) James W. Ceaser

Not available to order

Publication date:

16 December 2010

Length of book:

232 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442207929

In Designing a Polity, James W. Ceaser, one of our leading scholars of American political development, argues for the continuing central role of the Founding within the study of American government. Drawing on essays published over the past 10 years, extensively updated and revised to reflect current politics, Ceaser engages the Founding Fathers, particularly James Madison, emphasizes Alexis de Tocqueville as a model of political inquiry, critiques current and recent theorists such as Richard Rorty and Jacques Derrida, and explores the varieties of contemporary conservative thought. Designing a Polity offers a rich exploration of the core values of political sciences that will be of special interest to scholars and students of American political development, Constitutional thought, and contemporary political thought.

Chapter 1 Section I: Political Foundations
Chapter 2 Chapter 1: The Doctrine of Political Nonfoundationalism
Chapter 3 Chapter 2: The Two-Founding Thesis: Political Foundations in Tocqueville's Democracy in America
Chapter 4 Chapter 3: American Political Foundations in the Thought of Leo Strauss
Chapter 5 Section II: The Founders, Constitutional Design, and the Role of Political Science
Chapter 6 Chapter 4: Fame and The Federalist: The American Founders and the Recovery of Political Science
Chapter 7 Chapter 5: Demagoguery, Statesmanship, and Presidential Politics
Chapter 8 Chapter 6: Doctrines of Presidential-Congressional Relations
Chapter 9 Section III. Modern Conservatism
Chapter 10 Chapter 7: Four Heads and One Heart: The Modern Conservative Movement
Chapter 11 Chapter 8: The Social Construction of the Reagan Legacy
Chapter 12 Section IV. The American Way of Life
Chapter 13 Chapter 9: The Theoretical Origins of Anti-Americanism

James Ceaser is our country's leading scholar in American politics. These venturesome essays display his originality, his inventive formulations, and his theoretical insight.