Create a large enough republic to ensure that majority factions will
A republic, because it controlled factions.
Federalist 10 by James Madison
A republic is made up of representatives, these representatives carry the beliefs and passions of the majority of the ones they represent. So a republic is inherently going to be made of different groups of people with different views (IE Democrats Republicans) in other words factions.
They saw them as factions and entirely descructive to the Republic. MFitz (www.PatriotMusic.com)
It divided the country into pro-war and anti-war factions.
James Madison wrote about his concern regarding factions in his famous essay, "The Federalist No. 10." He believed that factions, or groups of individuals united by a common interest or opinion, were a natural and inevitable part of human nature. Madison argued that the danger of factions lied in their potential to oppress the rights of others or undermine the public good, but that a large and diverse republic with multiple factions could help control their effects through a system of checks and balances.
Madison argued that in an extensive Republic interest groups (factions as he called them) will be so numerous and varied that no one faction or group of factions will be able to control government and impose their will on the minority.
Are factions inevitable?
Old Republic can wait. Mass Effect 3 is supposed to be the top selling game of 2012. You can get Old Republic now however, and trade it back in when ME3 comes out.
Punic Wars..
There are actually quite a few factions battling in the wars that take place in the stars. In episode 1, its the trade federation vs the republic in 2 and 3 its the republic vs the separists which, at the end becomes the republic(now the empire) vs the Jedi. and in episodes 4 5 6 its the Empire vs the Rebeliian