This essay explores the political implications of seventeenth century American Congregationalism. The essay describes the Puritan theory of church membership and relates it to contemporary liberal and democratic notions of citizenship. While the relationship of American Puritanism with liberalism has been previously examined, few commentators have discussed the Puritan connection with direct democracy. Following Wolin and others, I sharply distinguish between the political theories of democracy and liberalism, and discover that the Puritans were "proto-democrats" in their advocacy of small, highly autonomous participatory communities. The Puritan theory of covenanted church membership reveals the nature of citizenship in a direct democracy. "Universal membership" is more characteristic of the large nation than it is of the small democratic community because the latter places more power and responsibility in the hands of the citizenry, and because a democracy is identified with its citizens rather than with its leaders or agents.
Title
Direct democracy and the Puritan theory of membership