Concentration of power in legislatures
The cases of the USA and Cuba
In Federalist 48, James Madison expressed concern for the danger of concentrating power in a state’s legislative assembly. In Madison’s view, the problem became evident in the governance of the thirteen states under the Articles of Confederation during the Revolutionary War. Legislators were consistently interfering in the administrative affairs of the executive branch, creating a dysfunctional and inefficient administration, seriously hampering the conduct of the war. Madison and the framers of the new constitution concluded from this unhappy experience that the executive power cannot be made subservient to the legal power in a well-functioning political system. Madison maintained that a popular republican government required the existence of a responsible and independent executive power and not a structure of legislative domination.1
Class struggle in the American Revolution
A take different from that of Madison is provided by Eric Foner,2 Robert Shalhope,3 and Howard Zinn,4…