Publication Type: Proceeding
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.