Abstract

In writing the essay on “factions” in The Federalist Papers, James Madison was able to point to one of the major purposes of the new United States Constitution, namely, to deal with the emergence of conflicting interests in the new commercial society. This represents the transformation from classical constitutionalism with its focus on virtue to modern constitutionalism with its preoccupation with the mediation of interests. As such, this transformation points to the reconstruction of the domain of the political.