Agents of Empire: English Imperial Governance and the Making of American Political Institutions

How did the core institutions of American government emerge and evolve? What political commitments are embedded in the foundation of these institutions? Drawing on his new book Agents of Empire, Sean Gailmard traces these questions to English colonial governance in North America. He argues that colonization required the English crown to delegate state functions to agents on the ground—first companies and proprietors; then state officials—but thereby introduced tensions between the interests of the crown and its agents of colonization. The study analyzes how colonial institutions emerged from the crown’s strategic problems of managing these tensions, and ultimately its attempts to increase its wealth and status as an imperial power. The institutions remaining from these strategic dynamics form the building blocks of federalism, legislative power, separation of powers, judicial review, and other institutions that comprise the American polity today.