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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Long Road Toward A More Perfect Union: Majority Rule And Minority Rights At The Constitutional Convention, John Patrick Coby
The Long Road Toward A More Perfect Union: Majority Rule And Minority Rights At The Constitutional Convention, John Patrick Coby
Government: Faculty Publications
On the eve of the Constitutional Convention, James Madison developed a new theory of republicanism, one that would allow union on a scale previously thought impossible. The extended republic, buttressed by constitutional safeguards republican in nature, would, he argued, protect the rights of minorities without compromising the majority’s right to rule. But Convention delegates, unimpressed with Madison’s new theory, gravitated toward constitutional safeguards more mixed-regime in nature and so produced a constitution incompletely republican. This article examines the three minority interests that most occupied the delegates’ attention: small states, all states, and southern states; further, it employs three criteria for …
Americans Attitudes Toward The Political Parties And The Party System, Howard J. Gold
Americans Attitudes Toward The Political Parties And The Party System, Howard J. Gold
Government: Faculty Publications
Drawing on survey data from ANES, Gallup, Pew, and other polls, this article examines attitudes toward the parties and the party system from 1996 to 2014. A previous Poll Trends analysis of the parties, through 1995, found antipathy toward the party system but not toward the parties themselves. The data since 1996 demonstrate that extreme discontent now extends beyond the party system to the Republican and Democratic parties. The data also show that Americans have grown more likely to see sharp differences between the major parties, and to perceive both parties as too ideological. As for the party system, Americans …