11 excesses of democracy.
This link was contained within the link I quoted. It is from those governed by the articles of confederation and contemplating a more central government.
lexrex.com
One excess is government based on misleading information while another implies a government so weakened by fiscal restraint that it cannot carry out it's requirements.
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Mr. GERRY. The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots. In Massachusetts it had been fully confirmed by experience, that they are daily misled into the most baneful measures and opinions, by the false reports circulated by designing men, and which no one on the spot can refute. One principal evil arises from the want of due provision for those employed in the administration of government. It would seem to be a maxim of democracy to starve the public servants.
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I find of of interest this passage in the debate by Madison. He anticipated the rise of special interest groups and the danger of them seizing a majority to push through absolute positions, one after another. He was advocating that the Republican form of government would create a multitude of smaller alliances to prevent this calamity. He obviously did not anticipate the 2 party system or the "litmus test" and "Dixie Chicking" approach to party support.
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The lesson we are to draw from the whole is, that where a majority are united by a common sentiment, and have an opportunity, the rights of the minor party become insecure. In a republican government, the majority, if united, have always an opportunity. The only remedy is, to enlarge the sphere, and thereby divide the community into so great a number of interests and parties, that, in the first place, a majority will not be likely, at the same moment, to have a common interest separate from that of the whole, or of the minority; and in the second place, that in case they should have such an interest, they may not be so apt to unite in the pursuit of it. It was incumbent on us, then, to try this remedy, and, with that view, to frame a republican system on such a scale, and in such a form, as will control all the evils which have been experienced.
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