Unfortunately, durable factions can become far worse because when the faction itself is no longer at risk, internal politics takes over. Sub-factions within the organization form and battle in caucuses and primaries for control of the Factional WIll. Soon after, sub-sub-factions compete for control in conference rooms, and so on. Instead of representing part of the shared Individual Will of its members, priorities twist to serve the agendas and stability of these subgroups. The scope of desired changes grows, purpose is driven by passion rather than reason, and members identify as partisans rather than citizens. People outside the faction are marginalized and villainized and slowly come to be perceived as lesser. At this point, any oppression caused by the Factional Will ceases to be an unfortunate trade-off but a necessary component of the General Will.
A system looking to generate the General Will needs to be in place to ensure that a Factional Will being put forth is actually aligned with the General Will. Ironically, since members of the faction may have rose-colored glasses, the only people who can make the distinction is outside the faction. What this means then is that a system looking to manifest the General Will can never allow a faction to get into a position in which they can enact their own group’s will unchecked.
However, it is more important that the system does not create durable factions, meaning that not only does a faction face checks, but the faction is given no path to help it maintain or regain power in the future. This would likely solve the problem of unchecked power as well as give voters a means to pressure or remove if necessary corrupt factions.
Thus, we need to explore why the Democrat and Republican parties have persisted for so long. This is done in the chapter “Durability”.
This is where we find ourselves today. Red vs Blue has become people’s identity.