Museum of Minds

Ratification Debates · Theme Cluster

Faction & Republican Government

How does a republic control faction without destroying liberty?

USG.1.INUSG.1.CCUSHC.1.CE§59-29-120
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The central danger Madison identified in democratic government was faction — groups united by a common passion that overrides the rights of others or the common good. The Anti-Federalists feared the opposite: that a large consolidated republic would be so distant from the people that local interests could never be heard. This debate, more than any other, defines the trade-off between scale and self-governance.

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This is the cluster on Faction & Republican Government. The central question: How does a republic control faction without destroying liberty? Ask me anything about the Federalist or Anti-Federalist arguments on this theme.