The Political Psychology of the Modern Republic

FAIN: FB-52382-06

Paul Anthony Rahe
University of Tulsa (Tulsa, OK 74104-9700)

My area of interest is the history of self-government from antiquity to the present day. For some time now, I have been working on a book based on an unorthodox reading of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Tocqueville with regard to the political psychology underpinning the modern republic. I have in draft six of the nine projected chapters (those dealing with Montesquieu’s discovery of the modern republic and his attempt to describe its nature and the passions animating it), and I want to spend my sabbatical polishing these six chapters and writing the three yet to be begun. I am persuaded that Montesquieu’s muted and hitherto unrecognized critique of the English form of government has profound implications for the American prospect.