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Easton on Factionalism & Rousseau, Madison, and Berlin

By Lawrence Solum

Whitney E. Easton (University of Connecticut) has posted Proving a Negative: Rousseau and Madison's Fear of Factionalism as Interpreted by Berlin's Two Concepts of Liberty (APSA 2010 Annual Meeting Paper) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Often, the discussion that is first and foremost in the classical liberal tradition is the tension between the protection of the individual from the state and the protection of the state from individualism. Given this tension, this paper examines both Rousseau?s and Madison?s fear of factionalism as a potentially destructive social force and argues that although both authors come, seemingly, to the same conclusion on factionalism, each starts from a different concept of liberty and ultimately diverge on why factionalism is destructive. This divergence can be explicated in light of Isaiah Berlin?s concept of negative and positive liberty and the ultimate goal of state formation. This early discussion of factionalism has led to very different democracies that endeavor to protect and promote different conceptions of the intended ends of society. In the modern political landscape each tradition has ultimately encountered its own set of endemic problems from populist and radically self-interested forces.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on July 22, 2010 (boomark / email).