Revolution and Constitutionalism in Britain and the U.S. Burke and Madison and Their Contemporary Legacies
In Revolution and Constitutionalism in Britain and the U. S. : Burke and Madison and Their Contemporary Legacies David A. J. Richards offers an investigative comparison of two central figures in late eighteenth-century constitutionalism Edmund Burke and James Madison at a time when two great constitutional experiments were in play: the Constitution of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the U. S. Constitution of 1787. Richards assesses how much as liberal Lockean constitutionalists Burke and Madison shared and yet differed regarding violent revolution offering three pathbreaking and original contributions about Burke’s importance. First the book defends Burke as a central figure in the development and understanding of liberal constitutionalism; second it explores the psychology that led to his liberal voice including Burke’s own long-term loving relationship to another man; and third it shows how Burke’s understanding of the political psychology of the violence of “political religions” is an enduring contribution to understanding fascist threats to political liberalism from the eighteenth-century onwards including the contemporary constitutional crises in the U. S. and U. K. deriving from populist movements. Mixing thorough research with personal experiences this book will be an invaluable resource to scholars of political science and theory constitutional law history political psychology and LGBTQ+ issues. | Revolution and Constitutionalism in Britain and the U. S. Burke and Madison and Their Contemporary Legacies