American Ambitions

There is a long tradition of debating the right to resistance: What aspects of that tradition were most influential in forming the Declaration mindset?

What kind of education is necessary for a citizenry that takes the Declaration seriously?

Does the Declaration offer us any permanent guidance in thinking constitutionally?

Writing a Declaration that could secure support required compromises and negotiations: How did these compromises chart the course of, or delay the recognition of equality for coming generations?

Does technology fundamentally alter the basis for representative government? Does it give us cause to reconsider the principles of the Declaration?

How important are religious and Enlightenment ideas to the concepts in the Declaration? Are these influences necessarily in conflict?

Why do we find ourselves refighting the same debates between open markets and mercantilism that preoccupied the 18th century?

What in the Founders’ education prepared them to be able to craft the Declaration? To what degree did it challenge the ideals of empire?

What sustains liberty? Does the Declaration offer a model for future political resistance to tyrants?

The Declaration did not just declare American independence, but implicitly declared war on England. What happens to the voices of loyalists in the shadow of the revolution?

What is the constitutional importance of the Declaration of Independence?

Shifts in our prevailing philosophies and theologies seem to make the Declaration’s ideals little more than a pleasant fiction. Is the Declaration's ideal of lasting importance for religious and philosophical thinkers?

The American Revolution and subsequent constitution of the newly-formed United States reflected some of the key ideas of liberalism—natural rights, government by consent, and limits on state power. Can war be contained by liberal ideals?

Education is increasingly technological and individualized. Can this be conducive to producing citizens who share a common set of political ideals?

How did the multi-stranded Western legal tradition help frame the Declaration?

The Declaration sets out standards for the just conduct of government: To what degree are these still relevant to American politics today?

Lincoln warned that when a free people renounced their “ancient faith” in human equality, they destroyed the moral core of self-government.

Both the Declaration and Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations were published in 1776. Do these works share similar preoccupations and concerns?

Modern Americans live with a kind of religious and cultural diversity that the Founders would have a hard time imagining. Does the Declaration offer us the tools to help navigate these differences and dissensions?

Contemporary debates over the Declaration and America’s founding suggest that the Declaration enshrines inequality at the core of our public life. How do the political compromises that were necessary to agree on the Declaration continue to haunt us?

How did the Declaration seek to vindicate the political rights of the colonists?

Many of the colonists’ complaints centered on unjust taxation. To what extent do those complaints continue to be relevant today?

Has the model of representative government embraced by the Founders stood the test of time? Is it a dead hand holding us back or the backbone of our liberty?

Does the Declaration offer a practical framework for future decisions regarding just war?