Abstract
McCool gives an overview of the modern theoretical justifications for institutional politics, starting with Hobbes and Locke. Institutional politics presumes to create neutral, objective ways to solve political disputes in society. It relies on a moderate version of theatrical politics, in which individuals follow rules of decorum and procedure, rather than engaging in emotional self-expression. From here, McCool explores the ways in which institutional politics was employed as a counterrevolutionary discourse by Publius in the Federal Papers and the leftist critiques of this idea. Finally, the political rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln as a conservative institutionalist is detailed, showing how his communicative distance from his readers strikes a balance between authenticity, theatricality, and institutionalism, reminiscent of Thoreau.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Jane Monica Drexler, “Politics Improper: Iris Marion Young, Hannah Arendt, and the Power of Performativity.” Hypatia 22:4 (2007), 4.
- 2.
Aristotle, Politics, trans. Ernest Barker (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 200.
- 3.
Aristotle, Politics, 34.
- 4.
Thomas Hobbes, “Of Commonwealth,” from Leviathan in Classics of Modern Political Theory, ed. Steven M. Cahn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 136.
- 5.
John Locke, “Of the Ends of Political Society and Government,” from The Second Treatise of Civil Government in Classics of Modern Political Theory, ed. Steven M. Cahn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 254.
- 6.
Locke The Second Treatise, 257.
- 7.
Locke The Second Treatise, 259.
- 8.
Bruce Ackerman, “Good-Bye Montesquieu” in Comparative Administrative Law, ed. Susan Rose-Ackerman and Peter L. Lindseth (Edward Elgar, 2013), 128.
- 9.
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, “Of the Constitution of England,” from The Spirit of the Laws in Classics of Modern Political Theory, ed. Steven M. Cahn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 347.
- 10.
Marshall Berman, The Politics of Authenticity: Radical Individualism and the Emergence of Modern Society (London: Verso, 2009), 120.
- 11.
Berman, The Politics of Authenticity, 121.
- 12.
Berman, The Politics of Authenticity, 120.
- 13.
J.F. Bosher, The French Revolution (New York: Norton, 1989), 31.
- 14.
Bosher, The French Revolution, 32.
- 15.
A Federal Republican, “A Review of the Constitution Proposed by the Late Convention” in The Complete Anti-Federalist, eds. Herbert J. Storing, and Murray Dry (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008), 76.
- 16.
Melancton Smith, “Speech at the New York Ratifying Convention,” in Classics of American Political and Constitutional Thought, eds. Scott J. Hammond, Kevin R. Hardwick, and Howard L. Lubert (Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2007), 581.
- 17.
Publius, “Federalist 49” in The Federalist Papers, ed. Clinton Rossiter (New York: Signet Classic, 2003), 314.
- 18.
Daniel Walker Howe, Making the American Self Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 84.
- 19.
Publius, “Federalist 10,” 76.
- 20.
Publius, “Federalist 10,” 340.
- 21.
Publius, “Federalist 10,” 385.
- 22.
Martin Diamond, The Founding of the Democratic Republic (Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1998), 73.
- 23.
Publius, “Federalist 10,” 73–74.
- 24.
Publius, “Federalist 10,” 78.
- 25.
Publius, “Federalist 51,” 319.
- 26.
Publius, “Federalist 51,” 319.
- 27.
Publius, “Federalist 39,” 239.
- 28.
Publius, “Federalist 39,” 210.
- 29.
Howe, Making the American Self, 88.
- 30.
Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, trans. Thomas Burger (London: Polity, 1989), 37.
- 31.
Nancy Fraser, “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy,” Social Text 25, no. 26 (1990): 56–80.
- 32.
Sven Steinmo and Jon Watts, “It’s the Institutions, Stupid! Why Comprehensive National Health Insurance Always Fails in America,” Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 20, no. 2 (Summer 1995).
- 33.
Rogers M. Smith, Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 116.
- 34.
John Brown, “John Brown’s Last Speech,” History is a Weapon, Accessed March 15, 2018, http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/johnbrown.html.
- 35.
William Lloyd Garrison, “To The Public” (January 1, 1831) from The Liberator, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2928t.html.
- 36.
Albert B. Saye, “A Covenant With Death: An Essay-Review,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly 59, no. 3 (1975): 330.
- 37.
Frederick Douglass, “Fourth of July Oration” (1852), in Political Thought in America, ed. Michael B. Levy (Waveland Press, 1992), 267.
- 38.
Frederick Douglass, “The Constitution of the United States: Is it Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery?” (March 26, 1860), Black Past, http://www.blackpast.org/1860-frederick-douglass-constitution-united-states-it-pro-slavery-or-anti-slavery.
- 39.
Abraham Lincoln, “Address to the Young Man’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois” (1838), in Political Thought in America, ed. Michael B. Levy (Waveland Press, 1992), 267.
- 40.
Harry V. Jaffa, Crisis of the House Divided: an Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates (University of Chicago Press, 1982), 195.
- 41.
Abraham Lincoln, “Speech on the Dred Scott Decision” (1857) in American Political Thought, ed. Kenneth M. Dolbeare (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House, 1998), 281.
- 42.
Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992), 38.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
McCool, D.J. (2019). Institutional Politics. In: Three Frames of Modern Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95648-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95648-0_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-95647-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-95648-0
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)