What is American political theory?
As the United States of America approaches its sestercentennial in 2026, it is worth taking stock of what makes American political theory a distinctive genre of political theory. Let’s begin with the fact that this country is less known by its geographical identity (“America”) than by its federalist structure (“United States”). This suggests that what unites the country–and underlies its political theory–is a belief in certain principles rather than the identity of a specific racial, ethnic, or religious group. American political theory is thus essentially about choice, not destiny; about increasing inclusion; about freedom to pursue happiness; and about the need to equalize opportunity. As I see it, one can best understand American political theory by identifying core principles shared by a majority of the writers included here.
The core notion of American government is the belief that the US is what its citizens make it. It is created by the people, not by divine providence or destiny. Government is not a preexisting power, but rather one constituted by Americans and legitimized by their ongoing consent. Thomas Paine advanced this view of government in his appeal to overthrow the British colonial administration in Common Sense. A few months later, Thomas Jefferson justified the right of a people to choose their own government in the Declaration of Independence. This belief in self-determination is reflected in the Constitution written at Philadelphia in 1787, and amended from time to time. In their decisions, the Supreme Court’s interpretations of the Constitution repeatedly consider what Americans intended to create since what the Constitution means is always a product of choice.
Alongside the principle of self-determination is the belief that unchecked government power is never to be trusted, even if it may sometimes promote the public good. This principle is the basis for the checks and balances that were recommended by Baron Montesquieu, the principal source for the contents of the 1787 Constitution, and defended by James Madison, one of the writers of the Federalist Papers. Ever since, Americans have relied on the distribution of powers within the Constitution to prevent powerful individuals or groups from engaging in tyranny. Readings that illustrate these checks include Andrew Jackson’s veto of a national bank charter and the Supreme Court’s rejection of segregated education in Brown v. Board of Education.
A third principle is that American government should never be insulated from criticism because freedom means being able to dissent. Andrew Jackson invoked this freedom as president when he wrote that no issue is forever settled just because the Supreme Court has spoken. Over a century later, Franklin Roosevelt identified this as one of the four essential freedoms of democracy. This respect for dissent is also seen in the willingness of Americans to accept conscientious objection as a means of protest, even though they still punish protesters according to law. Both Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. broke the law to protest injustice, and the fact that their views and methods are celebrated today suggests that Americans view dissent as legitimate.
Closely associated with the right to dissent is the more general principle that government must respect certain basic individual rights. This need for a bill of rights stalled the ratification of the Constitution, and the importance of rights has been a theme for many of the writers in this book. These rights prevent government from usurping individual freedoms, but they have not always been available to all. The chapter on the Civil War presents the scary scenario of a United States without these fundamental rights. Many of the writers in this volume, from Thomas Jefferson to Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt invoke the protection of these rights as the fundamental duty of American government.
A fifth principle is the recognition that government is always a work in progress, which means that change is both inevitable and necessary. In the late 19th century, supporters of both limited government (William Graham Sumner) and government intervention (Lester Ward, Herbert Croly) called for reforming American governments corrupted by the “spoils system.” Progressives such as Lincoln Steffens and Upton Sinclair vividly demonstrated the human suffering that arose when state and local government was unmoored from the rule of law. The American response was to adopt a civil service system to fairly enforce the law and make possible regulation in the public interest, a cause championed by Theodore Roosevelt. Even conservatives such as Joun Calhoun and Russell Kirk warn against viewing government structures as incapable of improvement.
A sixth component of American political theory is the expansion of groups entitled to equal opportunity. For much of American history, this opportunity was limited to a privileged few, as Victoria Woodhull, Martin Luther King Jr., and many others complained. Over time, the US recognized that all persons as entitled to equality. Justice John Harlan’s solitary dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson eventually blossomed into the unanimous opinion of Chief Justice Earl Warren in Brown v. Board of Education. Friedrich Hayek called this principle isonomia, and while the name never caught on, he most agree with him that equality of opportunity is an essential part of The Constitution of Liberty.
A seventh principle that emerged in the twentieth century is that government has a duty to aid those less well-off. For progressive reformers, it meant protective legislation for workers and union members; later, it meant public assistance and eventually health care. In the 1930s, Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt debated whether the government’s role should include welfare; by the late 1950s, even the libertarian Hayek was proclaiming it as an essential government duty. While there has always been debate about how much assistance government should provide to the needy, today almost all Americans accept its inclusion as a component of “promot[ing] the general welfare.”
Nevertheless, Americans have never viewed government as the panacea for all their ills. Over the past two-and-a-half centuries, there has always been skepticism about whether American government can provide solutions to every problem. In the US the public interest is often better served if government empowers individuals to develop their own solutions. Writers as diverse as the socialist Walter Lippmann and the conservative Ronald Reagan agree that government-imposed solutions often stifle freedom and generate inferior outcomes. Alexis de Tocqueville identified the ingenuity of Americans in solving problems as one of the principal reasons for the success of American democracy.
I could also have referenced Tocqueville’s Democracy in America for almost every other principle, even though he wrote in the 1830s. This is one of the reasons why I have included more from his two-volume work than any other source included in this collection. If I had to pick one book that represented American political theory, it would be Tocqueville’s. Ironically, he spent less time in the US than any other American writer included here–less than a year, and it happened almost two hundred years ago. Nevertheless, Tocqueville was able to discern more about the essence of American government than anyone else I have ever read. If I had to recommend any one book as an exemplar of what American political theory is all about, it would be Democracy in America.
Finally, a word about why the readings presented here end in the 1980s. There are two. First, this book contains more than enough material for a one-semester undergraduate course, which is the reason I undertook this project. Two, I am not yet ready to tell the story of American political theory over the past 40 years. Maybe that will be a future project.
–Tom Rozinski
January 13, 2024
