Colleen Sheehan is Professor of Political Science at Villanova University, Director of the Ryan Center for Free Institutions and the Public Good, and has served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. She is author of James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press, co-editor of Friends of the Constitution: Writings of the Other Federalists 1787-1788, and author of numerous articles on the American Founding and eighteenth century political and moral thought which have appeared in journals such the William and Mary Quarterly, American Political Science Review, Review of Politics, and Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal. She is currently completing a book on Madison’s Voyage to the World of the Classics.
Session One:
Focus: James Madison is generally considered the Father of the United States Constitution. His contribution to The Federalist Papers is considered the encapsulation of his political thought and, to a large extent, of the theory of republican government that undergirds the Constitution. What are the essential elements of Madison's republican theory in The Federalist? What is a faction? What is Madison's proposed remedy for the problem of majority faction? What did Madison mean by "the practicable sphere" (Federalist 14)? What is the significance of the practicable sphere in terms of: 1) Madison's theory of the extended republic? 2) the relationship between the representatives and the people/the public voice/public opinion? Does Madison's conception of republican government meet the standard of a genuinely popular government?
Readings:
- Federalist 10
- Federalist 14
- Federalist 39
- Federalist 51
- Sheehan, James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government, ch. 4, pp. 84-94.
Session Two:
Focus: In the early 1790s Madison became the philosophic leader of the "republican cause"; with Jefferson, he founded the first political party in the United States. In 1791-92 he published a string of articles in Freneau's National Gazette, setting forth his understanding of republicanism and his criticism of "anti-republicanism." Six of these articles are listed in the following reading assignment. What were the essential elements of Madison's political thought in the National Gazette (or Party Press) Essays? What importance does Madison give to the separation of powers and checks and balances in government? What importance does he give to public opinion? Is Madison's theory in the Party Press Essays consistent or inconsistent with his theory in The Federalist Papers? How are we to understand Madison's vision of self-government for America? What, if any, is the relevance of this "great experiment in self-government" to Americans today?
Readings:
- "Public Opinion"
- "British Government"
- "Spirit of Government"
- "Property"
- "Republican Distribution of Citizens"
- "Who are the Best Keepers of the People's Liberties?"
- Sheehan, James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government, ch. 1; ch. 4, pp. 95-106; Epilogue.