7. The Strategy of Majority Rule: Paradox III and Semi-Solution II

This chapter (“The Strategy of Majority Rule: Paradox III & Semi-Solution II”) focuses on the third great paradox of our system—the fact that Thomas Jefferson, a man who we think of as a small “d” democrat and a revolutionary, a man who favored limited government and states’ rights, turned out to be the one most capable of turning Madisonian government on its head and making it work. Jefferson understood what his predecessors did not, and what too few of his successors have—that in order to govern in a system so divided the president’s best option was (and is) to use extra-constitutional means (i.e., a party leadership strategy) to form a moderate, majority coalition. While Jefferson did this to an admirable degree in the end, as talented as he was, even he was unable to make the government work or fully resolve the tension between democracy and leadership that is embedded in our system and continues to inhibit governmental responsiveness, accountability, and effectiveness today.