Monday, October 11, 2010

A Republic of Letters

Here's an article which discusses the potential development of a digital library -- which to some degree already exists on the web. Material that would have been accessible to only a handful of people (specifically the substantive political work critical to the nation's founding) are now available to everyone. This was Jefferson's dream.

Understanding these lessons is one of the tasks of this class. But it also a task that only occur in a meaningful way once a proper balance is struck between the governing powers. As we will see in 2301, parties, the press, interest groups, all of these only begin to flourish once meaningful constitutional systems are developed, implemented and maintained.