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“Democracy Restrained: The Great Threat of the Constitution” The fundamental point of contention between the Federalists and anti-Federalists in their debates over ratification of the Constitution surrounded the question of what powers were necessary in order to insure the security of the nation as a whole. The federalists, of course, believed that a strong central government was necessary, for reasons of national security and economic prosperity. The anti-Federalists were strongly opposed to the centralization of …

…be dictating what the common man could or could not do. What history told these men, who so passionately wrote against the ratification of the proposed Constitution, was that unchecked power in the hands of a few inevitably leads to a corrupt and oppressive form of government. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography** Kammen, Michael. The Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History. New York: Penguin Books Inc., 1986. The Constitution Society. 6 April 2001 http://www.constitution.org/afp.htm.