The Political Psychology of The Federalist

Abstract

HE Federalist Papers are often treated as a kind of secular scripture, an authoritative statement of how American political institutions work or should work. Even assuming that the authors-Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay-shared the passion for fame they understood so well, they must have succeeded here beyond their wildest dreams. Today, lawyers cite The Federalist in their briefs. Conservatives have treated it as the embodiment of traditional wisdom; liberals have found in it the origins of broker-state pluralism. Most of the scholarship dealing with The Federalist has been written by political scientists, theorists, or commentators whose concerns lead them to inquire into the enduring validity of the papers. Sometimes their judgments are critical but, even then, are based on the assumption that the papers should be evaluated by the standard of their present relevance.' This article is written from the standpoint of intellectual history. It does not seek an accurate description of the American polity, or a normative statement of values we should try to live up to, but an understanding of a document in the context of its age. To extend the metaphor of secular scripture, I propose to locate The Federalist in what biblical scholars call its Sitz im Leben, its original setting in life. As Rudolph Bultmann showed in his great works on the New Testament, scriptures need to be related to