The Free Enterprise System is dynamic. It is disruptive, yet also full of opportunities in its competitive nature. It requires hard work and virtue in order for it to be possible. If capitalism is to rise above cronyism, a proper understanding must not only be cultivated but also promoted. Dr. David Azerrad offers us such an [...]
Alexander Hamilton’s political theory grapples with the enduring questions of political order, and it marks the great achievement of American constitutionalism in its understanding that civilization depends on a realistic understanding of the human condition. Few would dispute that Alexander Hamilton influenced the development of American economic and political institutions and public policies in the [...]
The rise of the bureaucratic-managerial state was a de facto constitutional revision, although the Constitution was never formally amended to reflect the changing nature of American governance. The result of this "constitutional drift" was a Machiavellian illusion covering the gap between political form and political substance. There is no such thing as a finished constitution. [...]
Forrest McDonald’s biography most likely will prove indispensable. What Alexander Hamilton thought, and how he came to think it, is nowhere else so plain as here. Alexander Hamilton: A Biography, by Forrest McDonald (New York: W. W. Norton & Co.) That Alexander Hamilton was among the most luminous and creative of the Founding Fathers every schoolboy [...]
The total absence of a distinct executive branch under the Articles of Confederation produced a government severely handicapped in the day-to-day management of its affairs. It was the founding generation’s own experience that persuaded it that instilling “energy in the executive” was critical to any constitutional design that aimed to promote sound government. The following [...]
Alexander Hamilton never espoused the kind of extensive, intrusive governmental powers that most of the American people today, including many “conservatives,” have willingly accepted. The Political Philosophy of Alexander Hamilton, by Michael P. Federici (The John Hopkins University Press, 291 pages) Toward the end of his work, Michael Federici writes, “It is rare to find [...]
One of the more bizarre orthodoxies quickly emerging among an entire generation of young conservatives and libertarians over the past decade or so is that Alexander Hamilton represents the beginning of the end of republican liberty in America. Amazingly enough, for a whole set of folks in their early to late twenties, the demonization of [...]
Alexander Hamilton is a controversial figure on the modern Right. Conservatives of a more libertarian vent tend to view Hamilton with suspicion if not outright hostility, viewing him as the American Founder most responsible for popularizing an expansive approach to the Constitution that would eventually lead to the increasing power of the federal government over [...]
On March 8, 1983, Ronald Reagan delivered a speech that shocked many, amused some, and inspired more. Attending the annual meeting of the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, Reagan decided to address the topic of sin and evil in the modern world. Drawing significantly upon C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, Reagan offered a [...]
Alexander Hamilton provided the early republic with firm and bold leadership. In justifying and explaining his political actions he articulated a theory of politics that has served as the foundation for one of the two central varieties of American constitutionalism. Few would dispute that Alexander Hamilton influenced the development of American economic and political institutions [...]
Friends, you must have either Jefferson or Hamilton. All the fundamental conflicts in our history were adumbrated during the first decade of the General Government in the contest symbolized by these two men. Hamilton lost in the short run, but triumphed in the long run. He would find much that is agreeable in the present American [...]