FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 2, 2007

Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260

Political Scientist Alan Gibson Receives Prestigious
NEH Grant to Research James Madison

Alan Gibson, Department of Political Science at California State University, Chico, has been awarded a yearlong National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Grant to continue his research on the political thought of James Madison and the foundations of American democracy.

Gibson is the author of "Interpreting the Founding: Guide to the Enduring Debates Over the Origins and Foundations of the American Republic" and "Understanding the Founding: The Crucial Questions" (both University Press of Kansas, 2006 and 2007).

"One of the leading objections to the ratification of the Constitution in 1787," Gibson explained, "was that the country was too large for a republican form of government. During this time, most political philosophers believed that a republican government could only survive in a small society with homogeneous interests."

"James Madison's greatest accomplishment as a constitutional theorist was to turn this 'prevailing prejudice' on its head," said Gibson. "Madison argued that a republican form of government could best be achieved in an "extended republic" where a multiplicity of interests would check and balance each other. This argument paved the way for the ratification of the Constitution and provided the theoretical justification for large-scale democracies."

Gibson's project will examine the "historical significance, original meaning and empirical veracity" of Madison's theory of an extended republic. It will also examine the enduring effects of the adoption of an extended republic in the United States on the character and conduct of democracy in America.

In addition to this NEH grant, Gibson received a summer stipend
from the NEH in 2006, was a visiting fellow in research at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton University, for the 2005-2006 academic year, and has been a Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Fellow at the International Center for Jefferson Studies. Gibson received his Ph.D. in 1993 from the University of Notre Dame and came to CSU, Chico in 2000.

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