Wikipedia on the anti-federalists seems too abstract

Anti-Federalism is a political philosophy which opposes the concept of Federalism. In short, Anti-Federalists dictate that the central governing authority of a nation should be equal or inferior to, but not having more power than, its sub-national states (state government). A book titled “The Anti-Federalist Papers” is a detailed explanation of American Anti-Federalist thought.

via Anti-Federalism – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

I’m not insane enough to fight on wikipedia, but I don’t think this gives an accurate picture.  I don’t think there was a “political philosophy” that opposed “Federalism.” I think it was a response to the governments that actually existed. There were thirteen sovereign states who won their sovereignty by a war for independence. That was a fact. Those were the governments that existed. They were not “sub-national” because there simply was no nation state.

Now, in response to the attempt to win jurisdiction over these states via voting, many argued against ceding to such jurisdiction because they believed it effectively guaranteed conquest by a foreign entity.

To make wikipedia’s definition work, we’d need to see some claim that all nations everywhere should have sub-national states that are equal to or superior to the central governing authority.  I’ve never heard of such a thing.

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