Not all of the decisions taken in the constitution worked. The use of non-proportional representation in the Senate gave excessive power to states with relatively few inhabitants. The inclusion of a presidential nomination to the Supreme Court would eventually create a hopelessly politicised body. But the real importance of what took place was not its specific form. It was the pursuit of the task itself. Radicals were now reaching an extremely sophisticated understanding of one of the central missions in liberal history: the separation of power – the attempt to carve it up, and balance it, in
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