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60 U. Louisville L. Rev. 273 (2021-2022)
More Sail than Anchor: Understanding The Federalist

handle is hein.journals/branlaj60 and id is 284 raw text is: MORE SAIL THAN ANCHOR: UNDERSTANDING THE FEDERALIST Andrew C. Spiropoulos* I. INTRODUCTION The Federalist, from the first, has been praised as more than an effective defense of the Constitution of 1787-it is considered a great work of political science.1 Thomas Jefferson, for example, called it the best commentary on the principles of government which ever was written.2 But what makes it great? Its greatness, one must keep in mind, cannot be separated from the greatness of the Constitution that the work explicates. Admirers of The Federalist commonly understand the innovative elements of the Framers' new political science, including federalism, the separation of powers, and judicial review, as mechanisms designed to limit the exercise of power, thus preserving the authority of the states and competing branches. Rather than taking the Aristotelian, or positive, approach to constitutionalism in which a constitution affirmatively articulates and establishes the positive ends and social institutions of a society, in the words of Martin Diamond, the American Constitution emphasizes the limiting aspect of constitutionalism.3 Because of this emphasis, we tend to see the chief genius of the Constitution in how it limits the authority of public officers, not in how it empowers them. In this essay, I contend that it is a mistake to understand the Constitution and The Federalist through the prism of the limitation of power. Publius is far more concerned with how to lure the most talented and virtuous to government service than how to check them. The principal purpose of the new political science was not to limit power but to attract and empower a new elite class of national political professionals with the ability, education, and character to make good use of a genuine government with genuine authority. Robert S. Kerr, Sr. Professor of Constitutional Law, Oklahoma City University School of Law. GEORGE CAREY, THE FEDERALIST: DESIGN FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC xi (1994); GOTTFRIED DIETZE, THE FEDERALIST: A CLASSIC ON FEDERALISM AND FREE GOVERNMENT 3 (1960) (It is the outstanding American contribution to the literature on constitutional democracy and federalism, a classic of Western political thought.). 2 Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison (Nov. 18, 1788), in 14 THE PAPERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 187, 188 (Julian P. Boyd ed., 1958). 3MARTIN DIAMOND, THE FOUNDING OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC 99 (1981).

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