Domain clique has been treated critically since then because it is the resistance forces against parliamentary government and is also the preferential system that conflicts with democracy or an idealism such as ikkunbanmin-ron (the theory where constitutional authority was given only to one ruler and any discrimination and distinction of social status were generally not allowed among others).
藩閥は議会政治に対する抵抗勢力であり、民本主義もしくは一君万民論的な理想論とは相容れない情実的システムであるため、当時から批判的に取り扱われてきた。