Basic Principles

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Constitutionalism — Sometimes equated with regula iuris, the "Rule of Law", holds that government can and should be legally limited in its powers, and that its authority depends on enforcing those limitations.

Essays and Commentaries

1.    Social Contract and Constitutional Republics, Jon Roland, 1994, with 2007 Supplement.
2.  Selected Works on Tyranny — To understand the principles of constitutional republican government, one must understand the principles of its opposite.
3.  Constitutional History & Commentary Collection — Books, anthologies, and essays.
4.  Selected Works of Herbert Spencer (1802-1903) — Early libertarian political philosopher.
5.  Selected Works, Harvey Wheeler — Papers on Francis Bacon and constitutional history and law.
6.   The Paradox of Self-Amendment: A Study of Law, Logic, Omnipotence, and Change, by Peter Suber, Philosophy Department, Earlham College. Explores logical problems with constitutions, especially involving amendment of them.

Selections from The Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics

1.  Politics, Aristotle (~350 BCE) — Laid out the alternative forms of government.
2.   Discourses on Livy, Niccolo Machiavelli (1517) — Argues for the ideal form of government being a republic based on popular consent, defended by militia.
3.   De Cive (The Citizen), Thomas Hobbes (1641-47) — Laid basis for social contract theory, providing branching point for the theories of constitutionalism and fascism.
4.   Second Treatise on Government, John Locke (1689) — Principal proponent of the social contract theory which forms the basis for modern constitutional republican government.
5.  Address before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln (1838) — Presents the idea of a political religion.
6.  The Law, Frederick Bastiat (1850) — Classic treatment of one of the main challenges to the survival of democratic government.
7.   On Liberty, John Stuart Mill (1860) — Carries social contract theory beyond Locke.
8.   Representative Government, John Stuart Mill (1861) — Carries the theory of constitutional republican government beyond the Framers of the U.S. Constitution.

Off-site Links

1.  Polybius and the Founding Fathers: the separation of powers, by Marshall Davies Lloyd — Analysis of how we got the idea of separating legislative, executive, and judicial functions into different branches of government.
2. Institutes of Oratory, Quintilian, 95 CE, tr. John Watson, 1856. A leading rhetorician of the  Cicero school  wrote this 12-volume treatise, that continues where Aristotle left off, and represents the highest standards of Roman virtue.
3. City of God, St. Aurelius Augustin of Hippo (354-430 AD) — Analysis of conflict between Christian ideal and secular reality in political affairs, first statement of "just war" in Book 19 Chapter 7.
   1.  Volume 1
   2.  Volume 2
4.  On the Laws and Customs of England, Henry de Bracton (1268) — First codification of English common Law.
5.  Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) — Develops doctrine of righteous government according to Christian principles, based in part on earlier work of St. Augustine, written 1265-73.
6.  Dialogus, William of Ockham (1280-1349) — This medieval English political philosopher laid the basis for the early theory of law, especially on property and the law of nations, that led to Common Law. In Latin, being translated into English, under construction. Noted for the Principle of Parsimony, also known as Ockham's Razor: "Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatum" — "Do not multiply entities beyond necessity", or in other words, "When in doubt, do without." In the theory of knowledge, it means that among theories that equally explain the facts, always choose the simplest.
7. Institute on the Lawes of England, Sir Edward Coke (1628) — Authoritative commentary on the Magna Carta as understood at the time.
   1. Summary
   2. Second Part: Magna Carta
8.  The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury
9.  An Inquiry into the Nature And Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith (1776) — Classical economics that shaped the writing of the U.S. Constitution.
10.  John Stuart Mill — Econlibrary summary
11.  On Democracy in America, Alexis de Toqueville (1835, 1840) — Discusses the society that makes republican government work and how it is shaped by that form of government.
12.  Disquisition on Government, John C. Calhoun — Discussed the problem of defending the rights of a minority against a persistent majority.
13.  The Structure of Liberty, Randy E. Barnett — Excerpts from a libertarian approach to law.
14.  Contemporary Approaches to the Social Contract, Entry from online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
15.  Liberalism, by Ludwig Von Mises. Critique of the dominant political faction in the modern world.
16.  Natural Law and Natural Rights, by James A. Donald. Historical review of the concepts.
17.  Why Freedom? — Debate on social contract theory between Tibor Machan and Jan Narveson at the Independent Institute Conference Center, March 31, 1999.
18.  Works of George Orwell — Includes 1984 and Animal Farm.
19.  Baruch Spinoza — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
20.  The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World, by L. Fletcher Prouty (1997).
21.  Forgotten Founders: Benjamin Franklin, the Iroquois and the Rationale for the American Revolution, by Bruce E. Johansen.
22. Rupert Sheldrake — Scientific fields are too often captured by orthodoxy and dogmatism.
23. Heterodox Academy — Promote open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement.
24.  The Proceedings of the Friesian School — Collection of academic papers, dedicated to the philosopher
25.  Lysander Spooner Collection — American political philosopher.

Also see the collections of Liberty Online and James A. Donald.

Political Science

1.  Prisoner's Dilemma and Public Choice Theory — Explorations of the conflict between what is rational for the individual and what is rational for the group.
2.  Behavioral Economics — Explores the psychological and cognitive factors in economic decisions.
3.      Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems, by Jay Forrester — Classic paper on why public policies produce unintended consequences.
4.   Evolving Complex Networks in Constitutional Republics, by Jon Roland — Examines how changing network structures can reveal how political and economic processes behave and misbehave.
5.  Chaos and Constitutions, by Jon Roland — Examines how the behavior of societies can only be managed in small ways and without reliable outcomes.
6.  Metagaming for Constitutional Design — Toward constitution-writing programs that may generate better constitutions than conventions of human beings can design.