Russell Kirk and Territorial Democracy

Gerald J. Russello

Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 2004, vol. 34, issue 4, 109-124

Abstract: Russell Kirk is one of the most important American conservative thinkers. This article traces the development of Kirk's understanding of federalism, which was neither nationalistic nor based in the usual arguments about states' rights. Specifically, Kirk adapted what the American thinker Orestes Brownson called “territorial democracy” to articulate a version of federalism that is based on premises that differ in part from those of the Founders and other conservatives. Further, Kirk believed that territorial democracy could reconcile the tension between treating the states as mere “provinces” of the central government and seeing them as autonomous political units independent of Washington. Finally, territorial democracy allowed Kirk to set out a theory of rights that was based in the particular historical circumstances of the United States while rejecting a universal conception of individual rights. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2004
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