In what David Hume had called the “perpetual intestine struggle between Liberty and Authority,” Madison had concluded that the best way to preserve liberty in a modern society like America was to hobble authority through what he called countervailing interests. We have another term for it: gridlock. Through gridlock, Madison predicted, “the private interest of every individual may be a sentinel over the public rights.…” In this way, he wrote, it will be “very difficult, either by intrigue, prejudice, or passion, to hurry … any measures against the public interest.” Except the “he” in this case
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