Frank Meyer: The Fusionist as Federalist

Jonathan H. Adler

Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 2004, vol. 34, issue 4, 51-68

Abstract: Frank S. Meyer played a central role in defining the post-war American conservative movement by defining and defending an ideological “fusion” of traditional conservative principles and libertarian political beliefs. While concerned with maintenance of an objective moral order and the pursuit of virtue in the individual, Meyer argued that the freedom of the person is the central and primary end of political society. The American system of government, with its horizontal and vertical separations of power, came closer than any political system in history to providing the protection for individual liberties necessary for the effective pursuit of virtue. Federalism was particularly important as it could forestall the centralization of government power. Virtue, to have any meaning, had to be chosen freely, but providing for individual freedom provided no guarantee that individuals would pursue virtuous ends. By the same token, federalism and the separation of powers did not guarantee that state governments would adopt wise or moral policies, as the history of the civil rights struggle attests. Nonetheless, Meyer believed federalism was essential if individual freedom was to endure. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/ (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:publus:v:34:y:2004:i:4:p:51-68

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Publius: The Journal of Federalism is currently edited by Paul Nolette and Philip Rocco

More articles in Publius: The Journal of Federalism from CSF Associates Inc. Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().