Federalism at the American Founding: In Defense of the Diamond Theses

Vincent Ostrom's analysis of The Federalist's understanding of federalism fails to consider the historical and theoretical context of The Federalist's arguments. Ostrom takes certain rhetorical devices of The Federalist too much at face value. He correctly sees that the authors of The Federalist view eighteenth-century federalism as bad government. He incorrectly concludes that since it is bad government, that understanding could not have been the true meaning of federalism. The Federalist understands eighteenth-century federalism to be “the true meaning” of federalism as established by the political discourse of the times. The Constitution departs radically from eighteenth-century federalism, but The Federalist seeks to conceal how radical the departure is, in part, by offering a looser definition of federalism that will allow the Constitution to be characterized as a federal system. A consideration of the writings of the opponents to the Constitution suggests the limited success of this attempt at redefinition.