The worriment of factions
Howdy folks, here is a piece I read from a journal called The Good Society, a nonpartisan political journal on political economy. Their website is www.bsos.umd.edu/pegs. The piece is written by Stephen L. Elkin, here are some excerpts:
"We have, that is, come very close to rule by a minority committed to undercutting the rights of the cititzenry and the permanent interests of the community, which Madison said defines factions. Faction, Madison believed, is the worst disease of popular, i.e., republican government, and it is the primary task of consititutional design, he argued, to control it."
"If sectors of the society inhabit starkly different economic universes, they are unlikely to think that they are engaged in a common equality is also an integral feature of republican government -- a well-ordered version of which requires a large and secure middle-class, one that wealth already gives the richest of the "haves," and that can restrain the desire of the "have-nots" to use the powers of government in any fashion that will alleviate their misery."
"Our situation these last years is the equivalent of a perfect storm: three crucial features of our working constitution have gone awry and reinforced one another. A factionally-minded coalition has nearly captured a major political party; the deliberative core of the political order is weak; and events have freed the President from many of the usual political and constitutional restraints. The combination is shaking the American republic at its foundations . . . But, we have been mostly saved from the worst of the crisis by something to which we should not pledge our consititutional faith -- the incompetence of factional leadership. That leadership has contributed to an administration that is the most incompetent to govern the United States in the last seventy years."
"We have, that is, come very close to rule by a minority committed to undercutting the rights of the cititzenry and the permanent interests of the community, which Madison said defines factions. Faction, Madison believed, is the worst disease of popular, i.e., republican government, and it is the primary task of consititutional design, he argued, to control it."
"If sectors of the society inhabit starkly different economic universes, they are unlikely to think that they are engaged in a common equality is also an integral feature of republican government -- a well-ordered version of which requires a large and secure middle-class, one that wealth already gives the richest of the "haves," and that can restrain the desire of the "have-nots" to use the powers of government in any fashion that will alleviate their misery."
"Our situation these last years is the equivalent of a perfect storm: three crucial features of our working constitution have gone awry and reinforced one another. A factionally-minded coalition has nearly captured a major political party; the deliberative core of the political order is weak; and events have freed the President from many of the usual political and constitutional restraints. The combination is shaking the American republic at its foundations . . . But, we have been mostly saved from the worst of the crisis by something to which we should not pledge our consititutional faith -- the incompetence of factional leadership. That leadership has contributed to an administration that is the most incompetent to govern the United States in the last seventy years."
