The middle constitution

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary,” James Madison famously wrote in Federalist No. 51. Any hope of America becoming an “angelocracy” in the near future has surely been stamped out by the state of our polarized politics. Knowing the United States would be led by mere mortals, the Founders put in place systems — checks and balances, enumerated rights, etc. — to guard against both the abuse and concentration of political power. They mixed and dispersed the power instead.

Ancient philosophers saw the virtue of mixed government. Whereas aristocracy and monarchy exalted the few and direct democracy exalted the many, the “middle constitution,” as Aristotle put it, held promise to help balance governance. The U.S. Constitution is a “middle constitution,” designed to give the nation its best shot at fostering civic harmony through robust federalism, varied branches, a bicameral legislature and an electoral college.

John Adams invoked Cicero’s analogy of civic harmony, according to Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center. Rosen’s essay on page 58 in this issue draws from his latest book “The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America.” Adams, Rosen writes, “compared the harmony of a well-tempered state constitution to the harmony of a well-tempered orchestra. ‘As the treble, the tenor, and the bass exist in nature, they will be heard in the concert.’” If a composer is skilled, say like Handel, they can bring these elements in nature together to “produce rapture the most exquisite that harmony can excite.” But, Adams cautions, “if they are confused together, without order, they will ‘Rend with tremendous sound your ears asunder.’”

For more than two centuries, the Constitution has succeeded in creating a successful, though at times imperfect and certainly tested, harmony. Whether that harmony holds is perhaps the most pressing question of our time.

In this special Constitution issue of Deseret Magazine, we’ve assembled a collection of essays and reported features exploring the stress tests facing America’s civic harmony. Constitutional scholar Justin Collings draws on Abraham Lincoln’s “Address to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois” to remind us why Lincoln revered law and the Constitution as America’s civic religion. Noted Harvard political philosopher Harvey C. Mansfield explores the perils of populism and James C. Phillips of BYU’s Wheatley Institute examines the problems when the Supreme Court becomes a venue for deciding conflicts best resolved by legislative means. And Deseret staff writer Mariya Manzhos gives a behind-the-scenes look at Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s unexpected and growing influence on the Supreme Court. Megan Feldman Bettencourt’s feature article on Ray Epps, an unwitting victim of conspiracy, exposes the state of institutional mistrust in America. And, finally, social entrepreneur Frank H. McCourt Jr. advocates for new solutions to the steep challenges presented by an increasingly digital civic space.

At the Constitutional Convention, Alexander Hamilton observed that in every society there will be a division between “the few” and “the many.” If you give all power to “the many, they will oppress the few.” And if you give “all power to the few, they will oppress the many.” The Solomonic solution then was to divide power and thereby, paradoxically, unite a nation. Whether that solution holds depends on the better angels of our nature.

This story appears in the July/August 2024 issue of Deseret Magazine . Learn more about how to subscribe .