Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)

STUDIES - András Tamóc: The Politics of a Cast-Iron Man. John C. Calhoun and His Views on Government.

interests, he rejected pluralism's guarantee and recommended a bisectional government. The Disquisition also expounded on the subject of liberty and equality. While he was familiar with the giants of the Enlightenment, his notion of freedom and fairness contradicted the Jeffersonian ideal. The Declaration of Independence reaffirmed the trinity of natural rights; privileges human beings possess by birth. It pronounced equality in the eye of the law and promoted such general prerogatives as one's right to life, liberty and acquisition of property. For Calhoun, liberty was not a right but a reward to be earned. He rejected the concept that based freedom on equality. The moving force behind progress was inequality. Humans were born with different skills and abilities and they had to realize their full potential without governmental constraints. He rejected social engineering attempts with an acid tongue: "to force the front rank (of society) back to the rear or to attempt to push forward the rear into line with the front with the interposition of government,

... would effectually arrest the march of progress".

2

9 Easton and Dennis' model can be applied to Calhoun's theory of democracy. Both specific and diffuse support are present. He offers the former to the South, the embodiment of constitutional majority. Calhoun feels the ideal society exists below the Mason-Dixon Line, not in the tension infested North. The concept of dual executives and its apparent purpose of keeping the South in the Union, is evidence of Calhoun's diffuse allegiance to the United States. His views on democracy are based on the work of political socialization's primary agents: the family, school experiences, and peer relations. Calhoun's dualist perception of the political process can be attributed to his father's Manichean mindset and the dominant religion of his childhood, Calvinistic Presbyterianism. John's respect of parliamentarism and the institutions of democracy originate in Patrick Calhoun's legislative activity. According to Hofstadter, the concurrent majority 2

9 Ibid., p. 282. 103