Federalist No. 49 really surprised me. The topic is keeping the proper balance of powers in check through the use of constitutional conventions when the balance of powers were out of bounds. I expected a favorable opinion from the paper. In theory I agree except that I keep thinking that the same people who were part of the problem were also the most likely to be sent to the convention to correct the problem. Just look at 90% of incumbents winning reelection at the same time as Congress has a 9% approval rating.
Interestingly the paper cites this very reason as cause to be wary of placing too much trust in such a mechanism to correct encroachments in the balance of power. That leaves me wondering – how do we fix our current impalance of power?
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