America’s Constitutional Soul

In America’s Constitutional Soul, one of America’s leading political theorists and most penetrating thinkers on the Constitution describes what’s wrong with American politics today--and what political scientists can do about it. Beginning with a chronical of the Reagan elections, Mansfield shows how our politics reveals its nature by the way it pictures the Constitution. He takes aim at the haunted ＂realism＂ of contemporary political scientists, contrasting it with the real-world successes of those early practitioners of the art who actually helped define a whole new form of government--and with it such concepts as federalism, a strong exective, and judicial review.

Harvey C. Mansfield Jr., is Frank C. Thompson Professor of Government at Harvard University. His many books include Statemanship and Party Government, The Spirit of Liberalism, and Taming the Prince.