You are right that "liberty" and "republic" were the rallying cries of the
Revolution.
The framers of the Constitution (correctly) understood "liberty" to mean equal
subjection to laws made for the common good of the people. They further
understood (correctly) that laws and government will not serve the common good
without representation, checks and balances, an independent judiciary, etc.
Republican government secures liberty by making laws for the common good.
Federalist X is a famous example of this way of looking at things.
Self-rule is valuable only to the extent that it serves these ends, through
elections, in a representative democracy.
Tim Sellers
>===== Original Message From Discussion list for con law professors
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> =====
>In a message dated 6/7/2003 11:46:10 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
>> What is "self-rule" and why should we value it?
>>
>> "Self-rule" is not in itself the first value of government. It is a
>> technique
>> for realizing the first value of government, which is justice. I think that
>> the term "self-determination" is more useful than "self-rule", because it
>> has
>> been better defined.
>>
>
> I do not recall the famous Founders rallying around the concept of
>justice as the rationale for self-government. That is a more ancient notion;
yet
>its frequency as the basic value of self-government even today has not
>dominated political discourse. The famous Founders were concerned with
liberty or
>freedom. Moreover, self-rule is more general than "self-determination." The
>former refers to an individual's autonomy over him or herself, and the
collective
>autonomy in ruling a nation. But I won't quibble over these terms. Liberty,
>freedom, self-rule, autonomy, self-determination, though of course having
>different meanings, can be used to refer to the fundamental value in American
>constitutionalism. If we conclude that "self-determination" is the basic
value, we
>must explore its parameters, and evaluate democracy or republicanism in terms
>of which promises to better realize the basic value of self-determination.
>Hence, undemocratic elements in American constitutionalism are justified if
they
>promise to realize the basic value of self-determination better than having
>no undemocratic elements in our system of government.
>
>Bobby Lipkin
>Widener University School of Law
>Delaware
