federalism

progress

is a twisting of the rhetoric of republicanism to create a liberal representative government based upon an elitist theory of democracy.

Wood argues that the Federalist twisted the rhetoric of republicanism to create a liberal representative government based upon an 'elitist theory of democracy.' Wood's central concern is with the meaning and requirements of republican government, and with the kind of representation appropriated to it.

is neither elitist democracy nor interest group theoretics. Rather, it's the belief that the purpose of representation was to improve upon direct democracy by refining the interests and opinions of the people.

In this article, I shall argue that the Federalist believed that the purpose of representation was to improve upon direct democracy by refining the interests and opinions of the people. This does not make them either elitist democrats (as opposed to republicans) or interest group theoreticians. In fact, if any group was primarily concerned with the actual representation of distinct economic interests, it was the Anti-federalist. To this end, we shall examine the views of two leading Anti-federalist, Melancton Smith and Richard Henry Lee, and the two most prominent (and frequently misunderstood) Federalist, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. As we shall see, their views

1s 2reat menace is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.

*Money poisons you when you've got it, and starves you when you haven't.

Daniel Judah ElazarThinkers

Daniel Judah Elazar