Americans agree that democracy requires freedom of speech. But a large minority also thinks it’s acceptable to bar certain subjects or speakers from public debate.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on James Madison
Displaying 1 - 20 of 31 articles
More than 2,000 letters between the two founders are available online. Many attest to their deep commitment to religious freedom.
Right from the very beginning of the nation, there have been rules that limit the ability of the people to choose their leaders.
Only 50 years ago, originalism was considered a fringe movement, hardly taken seriously. Now its adherents dominate the Supreme Court.
When America was young, its leaders had no trouble retiring from public service and public life. That’s not universally true now.
Presidents have family drama, like all other people. Hunter Biden is simply the latest example of a family member who has brought negative attention to a president’s administration.
Americans are not the first to fret over the potential harm that parties can inflict. But parties can also promote the common interest.
In the hard-fought contest between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz for the US Senate, Fetterman slammed Oz with charges he was a carpetbagger. That may have helped Fetterman win the race.
The decision to wage war is among the most important a government can make. How and by whom should such decisions be made? Canadians can learn a lot from other democracies.
In Pennsylvania, one Senate candidate is pounding the other for his lack of local roots. A political scientist studied accusations of carpetbagging – and found there is a home field advantage.
Historians of American religious history explain why the Supreme Court’s recent religious liberty rulings are an example of America’s long struggle to define religious freedom.
Once owned by James Madison, the Montpelier plantation remains a model for presenting a full depiction of the life of the former president as well as the lives of those he enslaved.
Like today, passions were strong and political discourse was inflamed in late 18th-century America. Angry mobs torched buildings. Virginians drank a toast to George Washington’s speedy death.
America’s founders accepted the reality of human selfishness. But, they also said people were capable of thinking for the good of the whole, which is necessary for a free society.
Only one president has done so – Franklin Delano Roosevelt – but others considered it, and even tried.
A president’s persona is always a public act. In that way, Trump’s shtick – vulgar man of the people – was not exceptional. And every president has had to invent his version of the role.
In the early years of the United States, several American presidents were in favour of public health inoculation and vaccination strategies.
The term can be traced back to the Founding Fathers.
Three approaches were debated during the Constitutional Convention – election by Congress, selection by state legislatures and a popular election, though that was restricted to white landowning men.
Think American democracy is ending? You’re not alone, writes a historian. American leaders have often yielded to despair – as far back as the founding of the republic.
Job Board
-
Operations and Projects Coordinator
-
Economics Editor
-
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services)
-
Chief People & Culture Officer
-
Lecturer / Senior Lecturer in Construction and Project Management
Top contributors
-
Professor of American History, Università di Torino
-
Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boise State University
-
Emeritus Professor of Politics, Washington and Lee University; Senior Fellow, Miller Center, University of Virginia
-
Foundation Professor of Law and Political Science, Arizona State University
-
Professor of Law, Texas A&M University
-
Professor of Geography, University of Mary Washington
-
Dean of Economics, Politics & History, The University of Austin
-
Professor of Political Science, University of Connecticut
-
Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State
-
Associate Professor of Law, Arizona State University
-
Associate Professor of Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin
-
Professor of American Politics, Fairleigh Dickinson University
-
Professor of Philosophy, UMass Lowell
-
Associate Professor of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
-
Professor of law and ethics, Georgia State University
