thousand.” But, Madison now for the first time139 suggested, “an enlargement of the sphere” might be “found to lessen the insecurity of private rights.” Bigger was better—or at least might be. It had been a commonplace of the theory of republics that they could exist only on a small scale, in which every citizen could vote for himself or alternatively elect officials who would be close to the people he represented. Building on a conjecture made by the Scottish enlightenment thinker David Hume, Madison was turning the received view on its head.140 Why
Diversity
