By Jon D. Schaff
This bold, groundbreaking study of American political
development assesses the presidency of Abraham Lincoln through the lenses of
governmental power, economic policy, expansion of executive power, and natural
rights to show how Lincoln not only believed in the limitations of presidential
power but also dedicated his presidency to restraining the scope and range of
it.
Though Lincoln’s presidency is inextricably linked to the Civil War, and he is
best known for his defense of the Union and executive wartime leadership,
Lincoln believed that Congress should be at the helm of public policy making.
Likewise, Lincoln may have embraced limited government in vague terms, but he
strongly supported effective rule of law and distribution of income and wealth.
Placing the Lincoln presidency within a deeper and more meaningful historical
context, Abraham Lincoln’s Statesmanship and the Limits of Liberal Democracy
highlights Lincoln’s significance in the development of American power
institutions and social movement politics.
Using Lincoln’s prepresidential and presidential words and actions, this book
argues that decent government demands a balance of competing goods and the
strong statesmanship that Lincoln exemplified. Instead of relying too heavily
on the will of the people and institutional solutions to help prevent tyranny,
Jon D. Schaff proposes that American democracy would be better served by a
moderate and prudential statesmanship such as Lincoln’s, which would help limit
democratic excesses.
Schaff explains how Lincoln’s views on prudence, moderation, natural rights,
and economics contain the notion of limits, then views Lincoln’s political and
presidential leadership through the same lens. He compares Lincoln’s views on
governmental powers with the defense of unlimited government by
twentieth-century progressives and shows how Lincoln’s theory of labor
anticipated twentieth-century distributist economic thought. Schaff’s unique exploration
falls squarely between historians who consider Lincoln a protoprogressive and
those who say his presidency was a harbinger of industrialized, corporatized
America.
In analyzing Lincoln’s approach, Abraham Lincoln’s Statesmanship and the
Limits of Liberal Democracy rejects the idea he was a revolutionary
statesman and instead lifts up Lincoln’s own affinity for limited presidential
power, making the case for a modest approach to presidential power today based
on this understanding of Lincoln’s statesmanship. As a counterpoint to the
contemporary landscape of bitter, uncivil politics, Schaff points to Lincoln’s
statesmanship as a model for better ways of engaging in politics in a
democracy.
About the Author
Jon D. Schaff is a professor of political science at
Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. His essays have been
published in several books and journals including Perspectives on Political
Science and South Dakota History.
ISBN 978-0809337378, Southern Illinois University Press, ©
2019, Hardcover, 280 Pages, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $34.50. To
Purchase the book click HERE.
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