nIn Madison’s mind the difference between an autocracy and a free republic seems to have been largely a matter of the precise point at which parties are stopped by the government.
n
nIn an autocracy parties are controlled (suppressed) at the source; in a republic parties are tolerated but are invited to strangle themselves in the machinery of government. The result in either case is much the same, sooner or later the government checks the parties but never
do the parties control the government.