Atlas / Organisations / American Federalists
American Federalists
1787–1816 · United States · Liberal · Electoral party · coding confidence high
Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →
Core principles
A strong national union under a written constitution, judicial review, commercial development, elite stewardship.
Economic model
Banking, tariffs, public credit, manufactures; Hamilton's national bank.
Organisation of powers
Enumerated federal powers, bicameralism, separated branches, an independent judiciary.
Reading note
Federalists wanted more centralisation than their opponents but far less concentrated authority than any European state of the day.
Check a claim about American Federalists. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.
Open in the atlasThe evidence for every score
All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.
EC · Economic organisation · scored +07
Coded +7: banking, tariffs, public credit and manufactures.
- Programme textHamilton's Report on Manufactures and the First Bank of the United States were the programme.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored +04
Coded +4: elite stewardship and social order.
- Programme textFederalist 10 treats popular passion as the danger a constitution must contain.
AU · Organisation of power · scored −06
Coded −6: enumerated powers, bicameralism, separated branches, judicial review.
- Documented act or statuteMarbury v Madison in 1803 established judicial review under a Federalist chief justice.
SC · Scale of decision · scored +04
Coded +4: a strong national union against state particularism.
- Documented act or statuteThe Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation precisely to strengthen the centre.
ID · Rule of membership · scored +04
Coded +4: a naturalisation regime restricted to free white persons.
- Documented act or statuteThe Naturalization Act 1790 limited citizenship to free white persons of good character.
CH · Method and tempo · scored −05
Coded −5: constitutional convention and ratification.
- Documented act or statuteThe Constitution was drafted and ratified through conventions rather than imposed.
Where it came from, and what came after
- takes its doctrine fromRoman Republican Constitutionalism
The Federalist Papers were published under the pen name Publius and argue from the Roman precedent throughout.
- takes its doctrine fromWhig Constitutionalism
The colonial constitutional argument was made in the language of the 1688 settlement.
- split intoJeffersonian Republicans
The first party system formed around the ratification argument itself.
Nearest organisations by measured distance
Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.
- Baltic Restorationist Nationalism3.5
- New Zealand National Party4.0
- Whig Constitutionalism4.2
- Roman Republican Constitutionalism4.5
- CDU/CSU5.2
- Botswana Democratic Party5.4
Countries
Cite this page
Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.
Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.