Revolution and Constitutionalism in Britain and the U.S.

Burke and Madison and Their Contemporary Legacies

David A. J. Richards

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781032530062
• eBook ISBN: 9781000965438
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Conservatism & Liberalism
• Index: Politics & International Relations

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface: Reasons for Writing This Book
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Burke’s Liberal Constitutionalism
• 2 The Liberal Constitutionalism of James Madison
• 3 Burke on Violent Revolution and Its Legacy for Madisonian Constitutionalism
• 4 Burke on the Political Psychology of Violence in the British Empire: Ireland and India
• 5 A Constitution for the Ages?: Constitutionalism in the U.S. and Britain
• 6 The Common Challenge to the Political Liberalism of British and American Constitutionalism in World War II: Institutional Change and New Challenges, Domestic and International
• 7 Patriarchal Religion in U.S. and U.K. Constitutional Law: Originalism as “Political Religion” (Burke) Unmasked
• 8 Concluding Reflections on Burke on Liberalism and the Political Psychology of Anti-liberal Violence
• Bibliography
• Index