Whether democratic (small d) or republican (small r), the Western Tradition of politics attempts to preserve autonomy by grounding coercion in consent – but coercion doesn’t go away. For Locke, Paine, etc., political society begins as consensus decision-making, but only for a moment. If the consensus-based origins of political community persist, they soon break apart. Individual actors soon agree to majority rule AND to representative government (two mutually supporting institutions you oppose to one another) or else the political community ceases to exist. To paraphrase Locke, a body must move in the direction of the greater force, or else break apart.

If there is such a stark distinction between coercion and liberty, you won’t find it in the Founders or in the men they read.