A More Perfect Union: How Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison construed the international system and the U.S.' place therein in the Federalist Papers
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2023-07-03
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
During the post-Cold War debates within the academic field of International Relations (IR), the Philadelphian system (re)emerged as an alternative or supplement to the Westphalian system. The Westphalian system emerged from the Peace of Westphalia (1648) and asserts that sovereign nation-states pursue survival and security as permanent interests by relying on their monopoly on violence in an anarchic international environment. The Philadelphian system originated at the American founding and relies, according to contemporary scholars, on popular sovereignty, federalism, negarchy and liberalism to create a multilevel governmental system best able to create domestic harmony and international peace. The Philadelphian system will be used here as an analytical lens to study the American founding, a period notoriously neglected in IR. Specifically, the Federalists Papers – a collection of essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, which were a blueprint for the U.S. Constitution – will be analyzed to determine how the Federalists understood the international system and the U.S.’ place therein. By analyzing the Federalists views on sovereignty, federalism, negarchy and liberalism respectively, it becomes evident that the Federalists understood the international system as a hostile or anarchic environment. Where their understanding of the international system differed from the Westphalian system, however, is in the requirements a government must meet to effectively engage therein. Requiring the government to respect notions of national, popular, state, and individual sovereignty simultaneously and equally, according to the Federalists, constituted a government appropriately balanced between anarchy and tyranny, able to facilitate internal harmony and external security.
Description
Citation
Faculty
Faculteit der Letteren