Tag federalist

Federalist Nos. 21 – 22

Federalist No. 21 and Federalist No. 22 close the enumeration of the deficiencies of the United States under the Articles of Confederation. The argument that the federal government was impotent under the articles is well known but I did pick…

Federalist Nos. 18 – 20

These papers offer an analysis of other governments which might be compared and contrasted with the system being outlined in the Constitution. I don’t consider myself expert enough to critique the analysis, but it is very interesting to see that…

Federalist No. 17

Prior to Federalist No. 17 I had never completely disagreed with any of the federalist papers. Unfortunately , in discussing the possibility of a national government becoming stronger than would be desirable, Alexander Hamilton completely missed on his guess that:…

Federalist Nos. 15 – 16

Federalist Nos. 15 and 16 led me to two conclusions. First, Hamilton is accusing those who oppose the Constitution of hoping for a different result by repeating their previous actions (sounds like our modern politics of perpetual incumbency). Second, the…

Federalist Nos. 13 – 14

Federalist No. 13 left me with imagining one of two conclusions based on the following statement: Nothing can be more evident than that the thirteen States will be able to support a national government better than one half, or one…

Federalist Nos. 11 – 12

Federalist Nos. 11 – 12 follow the same overarching argument that many of their predecessors followed. It can be boiled down to the truths concerning economies of scale. A larger union has great advantages over a smaller nation in many…

Picking Up the Pace

I realized yesterday that I have been losing steam on my review of the Federalist papers partly because the idea of 84 posts is rather daunting. I also realize that I am not obligated to break them up exactly as…

Federalist No. 10

A larger republic would be less susceptible to factions and the multi-level structure of government would allow for issues of local concern to be solved at a local level with only "the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national." But the advantage of a larger republic breaks down when large groups of people abandon their own thinking in favor of adopting the thinking of someone else and the advantages of a multi-level governmental structure evaporate when the vast majority of issues are presented as falling into the category of "great and aggregate interests."

Federalist No. 9

Federalist No. 9 can be almost completely reduced to this extended quote by Montesquieu: a CONFEDERATE REPUBLIC. . . is a convention by which several smaller STATES agree to become members of a larger ONE, which they intend to form.…

Federalist No. 8

I found Federalist No. 8 to be simply prophetic about the dangers a country faces when subjected to the intersection of human nature and the constant perception of external threat. Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of…