Compare And Contrast Federalist And Anti Federalists

Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist During the building of America’s government identity in the 1780s, the colonies were politically divided between two parties; the federalists and the anti-federalists. Typically the lower class, anti-federalists generally pushed for stronger state power. However, the wealthy and propertied class, the federalists, pushed for gains through a stronger national unity. The opposing groups worked hand-in-hand in creating the structural framework of the United States of America. Originally a republic, through the demolition of the Articles of Confederation and the creation of the Constitution, America soon became shaped into the democratic republic it is today. Despite their differences, the prominent leaders in the

Federalists believed the key to a successful nation lay within giving the majority of the power to the national government- where they would protect the rights of the people to the fullest extent. On the contrary, anti-federalists believed giving too much power to the national federal government would result in corruption among the states, threatening the rights and liberties of the common person. As a solution to this fear of corruption, anti-federalists believed a better alternative to strong national rule would be by dividing the power up among the states. Localized authority, they believed, would better represent the needs of the common man, whereas strong centralized authority would be difficult to represent the average

Anti-federalists believed a pure democracy was the most efficient and honest way to run a country. This way, they preached, America would accurately represent a “country of the people.” Using evidence of the shared hatred every colonist had for the British government, anti-federalists pushed strongly towards straying away from every aspect of British Parliament. However, while federalists did not support British Parliament, they also did not support a pure democracy. Federalists supported their argument of pure democracies leading a country to failure with the example of the Greek Empire, in which was a pure democracy, and resulted in failure. Although they did not push out the idea of democracy, for they concluded that to a certain extent a democratic society had potential of having positive outcomes. They supported the creation of a democratic-republic, which would hold a small governing elite while still taking in citizen opinion and