Mehr lesen
Zusatztext Robert McGuire's To Form a More Perfect Union is and will long remain the definitive study of the effect of economic influences on the drafting and ratification of the American Constitution Robert A. McGuire was born in Long Beach, California, and educated at Long Beach State and the University of Washington. A professor of economics at the University of Akron, he is the author of many studies that have appeared in academic journals, including the American Economic Review, AmericanJournal of Political Science, Economic History Review, Journal of Economic History, and Public Choice. Among his most recent research is a study of the Confederate constitution appearing in Economic Inquiry and an ongoing study of the role of diseases in American economic history funded with a National Science Foundation grant in 2000. Klappentext Many important questions regarding the creation and adoption of the United States Constitution remain unresolved. Did slaveholdings or financial holdings significantly influence our Founding Fathers' stance on particular clauses or rules contained in the Constitution? Was there a division ofsupport for the Constitution related to religious beliefs or ethnicity? Were founders from less commercial areas more likely to oppose the Constitution? To Form a More Perfect Union successfully answers these questions and offers an economic explanation for the behavior of our Founding Fathersduring the nation's constitutional founding.In 1913! American historian Charles A. Beard controversially argued in his book An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States that the framers and ratifiers of the Constitution were less interested in furthering democratic principles than in advancing specific economic andfinancial interests. Beard's thesis eventually emerged as the standard historical interpretation and remained so until the 1950s. Since then! many constitutional and historical scholars have questioned an economic interpretation of the Constitution as being too narrow or too calculating! believingthe great principles and political philosophies that motivated the Founding Fathers to be worthier subjects of study.In this meticulously researched reexamination of the drafting and ratification of our nation's Constitution! Robert McGuire argues that Alexander Hamilton! James Madison! George Mason and the other Founding Fathers did act as much for economic motives as for abstract ideals. To Form a More PerfectUnion offers compelling evidence showing that theeconomic! financial! and other interests of the founders can account for the specific design and adoption of our Constitution. This is the first book to provide modern evidence that substantiates many of the overall conclusions found in CharlesBeard's An Economic Inter Zusammenfassung This is a quantitative reexamination of the behavior of the Founding Fathers during the creation of the United States' Constitution. It employs cliometric analysis, formal economic analysis, and modern statistical techniques, to explain the choices the founders made during the drafting and ratification of the Constitution. These include: What form of government did the founders intend for the Constitution? What factors motivated them to adopt particular clauses in the Constitution? What factors led them to ratify the Constitution? The author argues that the findings challenge the prevailing interpretation of the formation of the Constitution....
