FEDERICO MIONI

James Madison tra federalismo e repubblicanesimo

N. 160

Summary — One of the decisive characters for the comprehension of the political scenery of post-revo1utionary America is that of James Madison, to whom, however, has not been recognized an adequate theoretical thickness. From some historiographical trends, in fact, has been seen in him only the shrewd strategist of the Constitutional Convention of Filadelfia, in a role either merely political, or of a simple institutional consideration. Other readings have examined the Madison thought, but only with regard to the Federalist. It is necessary instead to carry out a wider acknowledgment, including both the Madisonian works not included in the Federalist, and a ccmparison with the personality that, together with Jefferson (and from positions very different from those of the third American President) established a term of comparison for the Virginian political man, namely Alexander Hamilton. Within the Federalist Papers, one dwells on the peculiarity of Madison’s contribution, leading back to a vision that, though still original and innovating, shows a coherent reception of the lesson of the Scottish Enlightenment (in particular of David Hume): of it is grasped not only the anthropologjcal disenchantment, but also the reliance in a partial settlement of the political conflicts at the level of civil society, unlike Hamilton who emphasized the importance of the will of the political institutional subject. From this we link with the theory of the "split personality" by Publius, an interpretative tradition that is accepted on the whole, but with two relevant differentiations: the dishomogeneity between Madison and Hamilton, on one side, refers also to the idea of "political science" and the different use (societary or institutional) of the " method of the counterpoint "; on the other it does not involve the institutional plan by Publius, whose personality is "split" mainly at the political culture’s level. These elements are checked through an examination of the principal Madisonian and Hamiltonian texts: the juvenile works and those of the eighties and nineties, the interventions at the Convention of Filadelfia and those spoken in the presence of other assemblies, the correspondence with public personages, and in the case of Madison the articles published in the "National Gazette". The subjects of the comparison are the relation between societies and institutions and that between Federal State and the member States, the vision of the economy and the role of the Government, the political party, the modernization of the United States, the judgement on the democratic and republican ideology. Madison’s reflection seems perhaps less ample and innovative but more articulated in respect of the complexity of the problems of that period. It stands, on the other hand, not as a re-elaboration of Hamiltonian subjects (in the eighties) and Jeffersonian’s (in the following decade), but as an original synthesis of federalism and republicanism On a political theory's plan, these two trends are led back to two paradigms, of politics as production or as reproduction: also at this level, Madison’s thought is an unavoidable hitch to understand the American political culture of the late eighteenth century.