Compose an essay answering one of the prompts below. Your essay should be no shorter than 800 and no longer than 1,000 words—not counting title/cover page or bibliography. Be sure to include a cover/title page and to include on the title page your name and all the relevant course and assignment information and the word count for the body of the text (not counting title page, bibliography, or footnotes in the word count). With the exception of the title page, the document must be double-spaced, using 1-inch margins all around, and Times New Roman Font. The size of the font should be 12 point (neither larger nor smaller). Every page after the title/cover page must be numbered (but no number should appear on the title page itself); the first page of text should be page 1. For citations, Chicago Manual is preferred. Be sure to frame your essay as an argument.
Prompt
Is American Constitutionalism as described by Donald Lutz in The Origins of American Constitutionalism, James Madison’s “Vices of the Political System of the United States, and of The Federalist essays more in keeping with ancient and medieval, classical political theory or is it more modern and Hobbesian? More simply, does American constitutionalism have more in keeping with Aristotle or Hobbes? If there are elements frombothancient and medieval political thought, on the one hand, and modern political thought, on the other, which is more fundamental? In your answer please be sure to provide an outline of the basic elements of American constitutionalism as described in the aforementioned sources; be sure also to list the basic tenets of Aristotle’s constitutional theory (as discussed in class and readings) and those of Hobbes and/or Locke.
