How can powerful interests or institutions be constrained? What's the limit on people with power?
Through his research, Christopher Galdieri, a politics professor, attempted to answer this question. Galdieri recently published ‘Captain America vs. James Madison,” as a chapter in “The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” with his take on comparing the famous superhero with American history.
As a political scientist, Galdieri examines pop culture through a unique lens making connections to the real-world. Galdieri’s free time is spent watching Marvel movies and reading comics. The character, Captain America, has always come to the forefront of Galdieri’s mind. While the title Captain America would imply the character represents America in super patriot fashion. In reality, Captain America represents an ambivalent relationship to the United States and the United States government.
Galdieri focuses on James Madison, comparing him to Captain America. Madison has a very pessimistic view that people are selfish, which makes self-government hard because people are flawed individuals. James Madison argues that justice is the end of government, the institutions of government exist to achieve justice not to exist for their own sake.
Meanwhile Captain America completely disagrees with James Madison, who says there's a personal sense of right and wrong. Captain America believes what drives people's actions is characters and external controls institutions are kind of pointless if people are determined to misuse their power. What unites Captain America and Madison is the idea that people can do better.
Students, faculty, and staff had a chance to learn more about Galdieri’s work at the annual Faculty Research Event at Geisel Library in February. To learn more “Captain America vs. James Madison” visit the library site.