t, 子 PART ONE THE CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK CHAPTER 3 LIMITED GOVERNMENT:PRESERVING LIBERTY 59 newly independent Latin American countries adopted U.S.-style constitutions Europe 36,7mion only to fall under authoritarian rule.Even today some Latin American countries ALL COUNTRIES 48.8 milion are governed by harsh military dictatorships that use intimidation,torture,and murderous"death squads"to suppress political opposition.In those countries, as in some African and Asian countries,politics isa deadly strugge for survival 4.3 between the many who are poor and the very few who are rich. Asla 3.2 milllen The fact that the United States is a relatively wealthy country has served to China 500,000 moderate its politics.In Federalist No.10 James Madison anticipated that 400,000 America's economic riches and opportunities would protect it from political Turkey 400,000 400,000 extremism.Because property ownership was widespread,Madison foresaw that conflict would not degenerate into a war between those with property and those 200000 without it.Eoonomic divisions would occur instead among differing property ndio 200.000 interests. landed,industrial,and commercial-each of which would be fur- 600,000 ther divided,as in the case of small and large landholders.The net effect of this economic and social diversity,Madison concluded,would be a moderate level of political conflict that could be settled peacefully within a framework of limited government.The exercise of political power in all cases would depend on a joining of factions,so that each of them would be compelled to respect the rights and interests of the others. Madison's prediction was reasonably accurate.In 1893 Friedrich Engels,the collaborator of Karl Marx,said that he saw no real chance of a wrenching class struggle in America because of its economic diversity and abundance.13 And Engels was writing before the full fruits of the Industrial Revolution had Aica200,000 produced for Americans a standard of living that was the envy of the world. America's ethnic and religlous diversity has also contributed to its tradition of limited government.With the major and tragic exception of racial antagonisms, Daniel Bell,The End af Idealogy (New Yark:Collier,1961)67 8.7 milion Canoda 4.2 million 2.3 millioo West lndies 800,000 Cubo 600,000 Dominicon Republic 200.000 Colambia 200.000 Other Americas 400,000 FIGURE 3-2 Tota]Immigration American political life has not tended toward extreme polarization of one group o United Stat ,1820-190,by The United States,with itsa against another.A nation of immigrants(see Figure 3-2),the United States is Continent and Country of home to a population so varied in its national origins and religions that a Origin Sowrce:L.5.Immigratiow and Naturalization Serpice. less subject to the extreme general struggle between two readily identified and entrenched sides would not polarization between two groups that is found in some other easily be sparked.We can perhaps best understand the significance of this sodeties.In South Afriea,for diversity by thinking about the dismal situation in countries where two example,conflict between the dominant groups are constantly at each other's throats,such as Protestants and ny and Catholics in Northern Ireland,Greeks and Turks in Cyprus,Jews and Palestini- d black majoritys ans in Israel,and whites and blacks in South Africa common.(David Tumley/Black Finally,the United States has had the benefit of a favorable geography:the Star) nation's size and the two huge oceans that separate it from Europe and Asia