试论约翰·亚当斯对美国政府的设计

John Adams' Projects of the Government of the United States

约翰·亚当斯是美国早期最重要和最有影响的政治家之一。在美国建国初期,他率先系统地提出了邦联-共和主义政府设计方案,并亲自参与了美国第一期宪政体制确立的过程。1780年之后,亚当斯在政府设计理念上又较快地实现了从邦联制向联邦制的转变。其间,亚当斯发表的一些重要的政治论文和宪法性文件,通过各种渠道对1787年宪法的产生和权利法案的追加发挥了不可忽视的影响,为美国民主共和政体的确立做出了非常重要的贡献。

John Adams was one of the most influential and important statesmen in the early American history. During the period when the United States had achieved its independence, he was the first to propose the confederacy-republic project of the government, and participated in the establishment of the first-stage constitutionism. After 1780, he finished the transformation from confederalism to federalism rather quickly as well, and during the interval, he published a series of political papers and constitutional documents, which had exerted enormous influence on the emergence of the Constitution of 1787 and the amended Bill of Rights and thus contributed significantly contributed much to the establishment of the American democratic republic.