Violence hangs over the 2024 election. Well before the botched assassination of President Trump, half of the country already expected to see a civil war within the next few years. Riots have become commonplace—as have outbursts of the oldest form of hate. But in a sense, none of this is surprising. It is the natural consequence of the attempt to fashion a national democracy out of a federal republic.

As Thoreau observed, the reason why majorities rule in democratic societies “is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest.” In democracies, elections give the most powerful and well-organized interest groups the cover they need to use the government’s powers to advance their own interests. The winner takes all.

That is why the United States was created as a federal republic, instead of a national democracy. In a federation, communities have the authority to order life according to their values, even if they do not form an absolute majority of the entire population.

As a case in point, colonial schooling was primarily conducted in the native language of the students—with English taught as a second language. This tradition endured up until the 1900s, with many European Americans passing on their ancestral tongues through community-based education.

It was not until the Progressive Era, which saw calls for a vigorous national government, that the need to construct an American national identity became a matter of policy. If the national government were to intervene in what had previously been local affairs, there had to be a homogeneous national demos to support the new regime. Yet progressivism arose in concert with a massive wave of immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. Ironically, the increasing diversity of the country was a challenge to the national ambitions of progressivism.

Federalism was the chief legal obstacle to the progressive cause. By protecting the authority of local communities and state agencies against encroachments by the national government, federalism was the institutional embodiment of cultural diversity. Progressives saw that so long as America remained a confederation, the incoming immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe would pass their cultures on to their children.

As Horace Kallen bemoaned in The Nation in 1915:

At the present time there is no dominant American mind. Our spirit is inarticulate, not a voice, but a chorus of many voices each singing a rather different tune. How to get order out of this cacophony is the question for all those who are concerned about those things which alone justify wealth and power, concerned about justice, the arts, literature, philosophy, science.

The reformers looked to public schools to foster Americanization. By mandating education for all, perhaps they could socialize children into a new national identity. Yet over a century into the progressive project, the country remains as diverse as ever. In fact, globalization has made America far more heterogenous than it was a century ago. There should be no surprise, then, that nearly all national policies of consequence fail to inspire true consensus.

National political programs may work in small, homogenous nations, but America is a multifaceted behemoth. So long as American politicians keep pursuing national projects with the support of bare majorities, national conflict will be an ever-present threat. Per James Madison in Federalist 10:

A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority … such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

A society that grows accustomed to violating the values of its weaker members invites chaos. As people see their government using their own money to support causes they detest, violence becomes alluring. After all, the state is using force on behalf of the powerful. Why not retaliate in kind—why respect the same norms that the majority violates under the cover of law?

As things now stand, Madison may as well have been writing about the United States in 2024. Over half the country is greatly worried about crime, turbulence and contention are the defining features of our politics, and common passions serve as the foundation for every election campaign. For the first time in generations, it seems entirely possible that the republic may soon suffer a violent death.

But if Federalist 10 offers a diagnosis, it also presents a cure: federalism. By keeping political conflict to the local level, Madison aimed to neutralize the potential for national civil discord.

Indeed, it may be that only fear of a new war can restore an appreciation for federalism. America simply cannot survive without it. The fundamental diversity of American peoples demands it—and we have no other option.

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Image credit: public domain