Abstract:
As an important political force in the constitutionmaking period of American Federation, Antifederalists developed their distinctive federalist conceptions in fierce disputes with Federalists. Most of them took a positive attitude to Federation, advocating a reform on the basis of it. However, they bitterly attacked and opposed the new Constitution for it aimed or tended to establish a centralized government rather than a federal republic as they had expected. The antifederalist conceptions of federalization represented their perceptions as regards the scale of the republic, functions and effects of representative government, and character and belongingness of sovereignty. Defeated as they were in the campaign of ratifying the new Constitution, Antifederalists were “superficial losers”. Through mutual competition and struggle with Federalists, Antifederalists managed to merge their conceptions in construction of early America.
