Reconstructing the Commercial Republic: Constitutional Design after Madison

by Stephen L. Elkin

James Madison is the thinker most responsible for laying the groundwork of the American commercial republic. But he did not anticipate that the propertied class on which he relied would become extraordinarily politically powerful at the same time as its interests narrowed. This and other flaws, argues Stephen L. Elkin, have undermined the delicately balanced system he constructed. In Reconstructing the Commercial Republic , Elkin critiques the Madisonian system, revealing which of its aspects have withstood the test of time and which have not. 

The deficiencies Elkin points out provide the starting point for his own constitutional theory of the republic—a theory that, unlike Madison’s, lays out a substantive conception of the public interest that emphasizes the power of institutions to shape our political, economic, and civic lives. Elkin argues that his theory should guide us toward building a commercial republic that is rooted in a politics of the public interest and the self-interest of the middle class. He then recommends specific reforms to create this kind of republic, asserting that Americans today can still have the lives a commercial republic is intended to lives with real opportunities for economic prosperity, republican political self-government, and individual liberty.

416 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2006

Reviews

[Matt M Perez]

Very importantideas and analysis of the US system of government, as defined in the Constitution. It points out the shortcomings of Madison's theory and how his assumptions have not come to fruition. It proposes ways to correct its most important mistakes.

Unfortunately, the author is very repetitive. At simes it feels like every paragraph recapitulate everything that came before.

I read the first half of the book linearly. By the second part of the book I jumped to the last chapter, then back to chapter eight, and skipped the other chapters.