Opposed to a federal system of government or to centralized national authority; favoring local or state power instead.
From anti- (against) + federal (from Latin foedus meaning covenant or alliance). The term specifically refers to American political movements that resisted the growth of central government power.
The Antifederalists were the losing side in America's great Constitutional debate of 1787-88, warning that a strong central government would eventually become tyrannical, and history proved them partially right—though today we'd be shocked by their predictions that federal power was the main threat while hardly mentioning corporate power or surveillance.
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