How to avoid a coup d'état: The Federalist on the American constitution

SUMMARY

In this article Jack Pole considers whether the Constitution of the United States, as drafted in the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 could be regarded as the result of a coup d'état, since the original remit of the Convention had been to modify the existing Confederation of independent states, while the outcome was a constitution for a new sovereign, federal state. The article is based on the use of the collection of essays that were later published collectively as The Federalist to illustrate the thinking of the Convention leaders. It is important that The Federalist was not a work of political theory, but a collection of the ideas of Hamilton, Madison and Jay, which were written in response to developments with the aim of persuading the public to vote for ratification. The central problem for the authors was to balance their wish for a strong central government against the widespread contemporary belief, rooted in Whig thinking, that a strong central government was the most dangerous of all threats to individual liberties. The authors, collectively ‘Publicus’, begin with an orthodox view of sovereignty as ‘indivisible’: but this view was modified in face of strong Anti-Federalist attacks on ‘consolidation’. Key issues were open to later judicial interpretations. The article suggests that, quite apart from the complete absence of armed coercion on the Convention of 1787, the results of its deliberation cannot be seen as the result of any kind of coup.     

THE MUNICIPAL POLICE DETECTIVE: AN HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

When modern policing in cities developed in the United States, detection was more a private than a public matter. Once public detectives became an integral part of police departments, their role and activities gradually changed. Between the middle of the 19th and 20th centuries, detectives evolved through three phases: secretive rogue, inquisitor, and bureaucrat.     

ELIOT OF HARVARD

Several years ago, I was asked to deliver a mid‐summer lecture to a group of university presidents on the subject of leadership. With the unusual luxury of having some time to prepare, I chose not to reflect upon my personal experiences, but to seek inspiration from history. Initially, I planned to draw lessons from the work of the greatest of my Yale predecessors, as well as several presidents with distinguished records at other institutions. The more I read, the more convinced I became that one leader stands above all others in the history of American higher education. He, alas, was not a Yale man.     

THE STATE OF CRIMINOLOGICAL THEORY*

After nearly 20 years of ferment in criminology, the reactive conception of criminality is the most intractable issue. It can be circumvented only if criminologists use official data to compute crime rates and to identify criminals or delinquents. That proposed strategy does not necessarily entail acceptance of the reactive conception, especially in light of an argument about etiological theories that purport to answer two of the four major criminological questions, those having to do with variation in the crime rate and with individual differences as regards criminality. Any such theory will be empirically indefensible unless it encompasses (1) some etiological condition as the independent variable; (2) the frequency of some type of behavior as an intervening variable; (3) an official criminality variable (for example, an official crime rate); and (4) a reactive variable, one which pertains to the behavior of legal officials and supposedly determines the connection between the intervening variable and the dependent variable. The argument bears on Marxist and conflict criminology only insofar as advocates of those perspectives genuinely pursue etiological theories about crime. Finally, apart from any substantive consideration, criminological theories will remain defective until criminologists adopt formal theory construction. The more general and important point is that some 20 years of ferment will not culminate in a new theory without some special strategy—if not the one proposed here, then another.     

STYLES OF COMMUNITY POLICING

Police agencies have distinctive philosophies, or styles, of policing. James Q. Wilson identified three policing styles by analyzing the approach of police in order-maintenance and law enforcement situations Styles can also be developed by considering policing methods in relation to their impact upon the general community. The reactive-procrctive emphasis given to wrious combinations of positive and negative methods, or counselor and enforcer roles, is the basis for the four policing styles discussed.     

Implications of Successful Career Paths of Top Local Government Finance Managers

Little is known about successful local government financial management careers and their implications for organizations. This study identifies three levels of career success—top managers, aspirants, and the plateaued status—and how these groups differ on important personal and professional characteristics. Findings reveal that top managers differ in important ways from aspirants and the plateaued. Furthermore, top managers hired from outside the organization pay more attention to the financial viability of the organization and are more willing to innovate financially than those promoted from within. Results have implications for professionals, their employing organizations, educators, and the ethics of government finance.