
Michael P. Federici
Michael Federici is Professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University and chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations. He served on the faculty at Mercyhurst University from August 1993-May 2017 (seven years as department chair). While at Mercyhurst, he was Faculty Senate President and on the University’s Board of Trustees from 2011-2013 and 2007-2009. He is in his twenty-ninth year of college teaching. He received his Ph.D. (1990) and M.A. (1985) in Politics from The Catholic University of American in Washington, D.C., and his B.S. in Economics from Elizabethtown College (1983). Dr. Federici has published five books, The Challenge of Populism (1991), Eric Voegelin: The Restoration of Order (2002), The Political Philosophy of Alexander Hamilton published by Johns Hopkins University Press (June 2012), Rethinking the Teaching of American History, (an edited volume; Butler Books 2012), and a co-edited collection of essays entitled, The Culture of Immodesty in American Life and Politics: The Modest Republic (Palgrave Macmillan, May 2013). He has also published several articles and book reviews. Dr. Federici’s teaching and research areas include American Politics, Constitutional Law, Political Theory, and American Political Thought.
Read Michael P. Federici’s Essays

It has been said that Marbury v. Madison is the most significant case ever decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The accolade may be overstated because the legal dispute between Marbury and Madison was left unresolved.
Political thinking in the modern democratic era easily lends itself to the reliance on simplifying labels – in other words, ideologies.
Last year I decided to fix our deck. It’s big, about 600 square feet, nine feet off the ground, and it was falling apart. Joists were rotting, and the whole thing was resting on one beam, when there should’ve been three. My foot went through the floor a couple of times.
In this essay, one of our student authors examines how Roman ideals of civic duty and freedom influenced the Federalist and Anti-Federalist debates, revealing their lasting impact on America's founding and modern democracy.
Biographer Ron Chernow explains, “Mark Twain has long been venerated as an emblem of Americana.” In this fascinating biography, Chernow explains why. Though the book runs to 1200 pp, it never becomes tedious; on the contrary, it is an enthralling read.
Until recently, anyone who believed there was anything fishy about the U.S. organ donation system was labeled a conspiracy theorist. Yet now the old adage: “What’s the difference between conspiracy and truth? About six months,” rings true again, as so-called conspiracy theorists have been proven right by none other than the federal Health and Resources Services Administration (HRSA) itself.
“War made the state,” said the political scientist Charles Tilly, “and the state made war.” Tilly was talking about actual states, but the same could be said about metaphorical states: states of mind, or perhaps of the soul.