摘要：This paper introduces some mathematical formulas able to represent James Madison’s thesis (Federalist N° 10) that the larger is the republic, the larger the amount of interests and, consequently, factions inside it. Although our fi ndings are still to be improved by further analysis, they already show the limits of Madison’s ideas at that time about how inconvenient political parties could be. At the bottom of these thoughts lies the eighteen century concept of “human nature”, which allows thinking human features as materials for the social machine.
