A reader's companion
A theme in the papers
The Federalist Papers on Faction
The founders' word for what we would call parties and special interests, and their surprising plan to live with it.
“Faction” was the founders’ word for a group — a majority or a minority — united by a passion or interest against the rights of others or the good of the whole. They saw it as the disease most likely to kill a republic.
What is striking is Madison’s response. He does not promise to end faction. He argues that the attempt would be worse than the disease, and that the cure is structural: a republic large enough, and a government divided enough, that no one faction can dominate the rest.
Federalist No. 9: Union Against Domestic Faction
Hamilton frames the union itself as a barrier against domestic faction and insurrection.
Federalist No. 10: Faction and the Large Republic
Madison's core argument: you cannot remove the causes of faction without killing liberty, so you control its effects by enlarging the republic.
Federalist No. 51: Checks and Balances
The structural answer — set ambition against ambition so no single faction captures the whole government.