Factionalism Yesterday, Polarization Today

For the past century, the analysis of faction in Federalist 10 has dominated our understanding of the original political theory of the Constitution that James Madison did so much to design. A political theory of the Constitution is different from analyzing how and why it allocates powers to the three departments or divides them between the Union and the states. It instead marks an attempt to identify the interests and passions that will swirl through the body politic. In making faction the topic of his first contribution to The Federalist, Madison also identified it as the “dangerous vice” that must be cured. “The instability, injustice and confusion [it] introduced into the public councils,” he observed, “have in truth been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have every where perished.”

To ask how well Madison’s theory works today, in an era when the Constitution itself seems to be failing, poses a fair but tough question. By common consent, Americans live in an era of tense and bitter polarization. That polarization can be measured in many ways, including the fact that the most conservative Democratic congressman votes to the left of the most liberal Republican—assuming that such creatures even exist. Having the president tell an Iowa rally that he “hates” Democrats “because I really believe they hate our country” marks an abysmal low in presidential rhetoric.