[betty boop]

Suffused throughout Madison's Federalist essays is the argument that the elaborate constitutional structure provided a series of filters that would sift out the undeserving, so that none but the most virtuous would reach the top.

Well, gee... that little "pipe dream" didn't seem to work out too well, did it, KC? Funny how "theory" succumbs to reality sooner or later, and probably sooner, in the degree that the theorist regards actual experience -- personal, social, and historical -- as outmoded and therefore "irrelevant" to his theoretical problems.

Our modernist and post-modernist ideologues are seemingly united in believing that the only way to make anything "new" (e.g., a "perfect society") is to simply clear the decks of everything "old." But this never works in the long run: Reality is just too stubborn.

Thanks for the heads-up to this "meaty" essay, KC Burke. Bookmarked for later study. best, bb.

[KC Burke]

I don't see the use of the words regarding "filtering" as heavily laden with import as you do. We weren't looking for either a pure democracy or an hereditary aristocracy by such structures.

The filtering process of the Federalist was the accross the board understanding of how to create an upper house in congress ( a sea anchor sort of body) and how to have a President not beholden to a segment of the country or elected as a popular demogogue. In sum, all the dangers read in populist democractic regimes up until their time.

Since then, with expansion of the franchise and liberalizing of the participation of the electorate in determining representation, we have had a slow, gradual, change to our structure today -- all without revolution or upheavel on these matters. Very conservative and prudent change, albeit not without flaws.