Marks Papers that explore the American doctrine of separating legislative, executive, and judicial authority into distinct, coequal branches of government.
Loyalist № 13. Hamilton called the judiciary the “least dangerous” branch. Yet history played out very differently. From Marbury to Dobbs, the U.S. Supreme Court has shaped the political order as deeply as any elected branch. Its real power lay not only in constitutional design, but in popular legitimacy – something the Westminster experience shows cannot be engineered, only inherited.
Loyalist № 9. Madison warned that even a chamber of sages could descend into a mob. Today’s Congress faces the opposite danger: silence, submission, and the slow death of deliberation. When its power was challenged, it did not resist – it abdicated.
Loyalist № 8. The Electoral College was meant to shield the presidency from partisanship and populism – but quickly became their tool. Federalist No. 68 offers a window into the original design and its failure, raising deeper questions: What can Westminster democracy teach us about balancing local and national interests? And have Canadians unknowingly created an Electoral College of Our own?
Loyalist № 6. What if the Framers had chosen a plural executive instead of a President? Revisiting a pivotal debate that sparked Federalist No. 70, We imagine the consequences of a very different choice – one that might have left the young United States of America fractured, its capital in ruins, and its future uncertain.