1. Origin & Development of the US Constitution
Module 1.2: Faction

2. Problems under the Confederation
States’ war debt
States raise taxes
States and creditors call in loans
Debtors unable to pay
Creditors attempt to sue
Debtors block the courts (Shays’ Rebellion)
Interstate disputes over taxation
States share waterways
States regulate commerce
States tax fisheries harvests
Includes citizens from other states
Insecure borders
UK grudgingly concludes Peace of Paris
UK negotiates with possible US adversaries
Including Gayanashagowa
UK maintains military in Ontario and Quebec
UK maintains Blockade on Atlantic Coast
Barriers to interstate commerce
British blockade
Water route difficult and dangerous
Multiple currencies, multiple import duties
State border crossings expensive
increases cost of manufacture
Native nations
The Western Alliance
Kentucky patrols
Tsalagi boundary dispute

3. Faction From Federalist #10: “By a faction I understand
A number of citizens
> ½ or
< ½
United by a common interest
Act on their common interest
Their common interest adverse to the rights of others or
Their common interest adverse to the permanent and aggregate interest of the community
How to cure the mischiefs of faction
Eliminate causes of faction
Destroy liberty
Unwise: the purpose of government is to secure unalienable rights, including liberty
Destroying liberty turns government into a most dangerous faction
Give everyone the same opinion
Impossible: everyone has unique experiences which affect their opinions
Control effects of faction
The preferred method

4. How to control “the mischiefs of faction”
To control majority faction, ensure that smaller factions may contest other factions
Factions thus hold each other in check
Ensure that factions can be heard
factions seek support, members, opportunity to grow
Encourage a multiplicity of faction where they are likely to form—the private sector
Institute opportunities for faction to form where a multiplicity is unlikely to form—the public sector

5. Private sector solutions
Liberty g faction : Air g fire
Where liberties are secure, faction will follow
Ensure that factious interests may
express their opinions
Gather and organize
recruit followers
compete with other factions
Mode of control
Ensure free speech, especially political speech
Ensure a free press
Ensure free exercise of religion without establishing a public sector religious orthodoxy
Ensure free assembly
Guarantee the elective power to citizens
free and frequent election of public officials
Elected representation

6. The Public Sector Problem
Government tends to coalesce into one body
Governments necessarily wield power
Those who hold power are invariably led to abuse it (from Montesquieu)
Governments tend to emerge as a single faction, destroying liberty in the name of preserving it

7. The Solution?
Build upon factions that already exist in the United States
Establish a multiplicity of faction where it would not otherwise form
Set government and governments in tension with one another
Institutionalize political power in separate potentially factious bodies
Ensure regular pressure from interests outside government