(Page 1 of 42) - Covenantal Politics in America - Two Radicalisms authored by Maddox, Graham. and Moore, Tod.

Covenantal Democracy in America: Two Radicalisms.

Graham Maddox and Tod Moore
The University of New England
Australia

Abstract [see conference abstract]

It has long been accepted that Calvinism made a contribution to the radical
features of American democracy, and the radical implications of the covenant
theology give rise to two claims in the literature: first, that covenant theology
produces activist, reformist, and democratic ideas; second, that in New
England, it led to the first modern, secular, practical democracies. As well as
these two claims, other effects of Calvinism in America could include its
indirect influence on the drafting of the 1787 Constitution and the Bill of
Rights.

Owing to the ambiguity of Calvinism, however, some confusion is

evidenced by the demonstrable inability of commentators to make convincing
connections between the early experiments in democracy in New England,
and the anti-democratic republicanism of the Constitution and of the literature
of the Revolutionary era.

To address the problem, we propose a distinction between two types of

Calvinism, both of which have profoundly affected the American political
landscape in different ways. First, we posit “I-type” Calvinism, which was the
prevailing type in early New England, and which includes the idea of radical
democracy. The other form of Calvinist political ideology we propose is “P-
type”, in which democracy is opposed in favour of republican ideals. The
statements of propagandists for the two sides of seventeenth century
Calvinism, the Independents and the Presbyterians, can be used to illustrate
the differences between I-type and P-type Calvinist politics, as well as their
underlying similarities. Perhaps the most engaging matter to arise is the way
that initially similar belief systems can subsequently diverge so much on
political questions.

Both types of Calvinism were present in the United States before 1775,

in populations concentrated in different Colonies, and sometimes even in the
same Colonies. For example, the Ulster migrations of the 1720s and 1730s
brought large numbers of P-type Calvinists to the Middle Colonies, but also
many who went to the older I-type Colony of Massachusetts. The result of
migrations was the emergence of two distinct Calvinist political sub-cultures.
New England Congregationalism and Plymouth Separatism gave rise to a
democratic ethos. On the other hand, Presbyterians and their secular
counterpart, the Commonwealth-men, helped to generate the republican ethos
— much less congenial to democracy — which came to dominate politics in
the Revolutionary era, and beyond.