Factionalism and dissent are divisions among Nephites over political rule and departures to the Lamanites. Some sought to alter the law “to overthrow the free government and to establish a king over the land” (Alma 51:5).
Those who wanted Pahoran to remain chief judge took the name of freemen, and “the voice of the people came in favor of the freemen” (Alma 51:6-7).
Dissenters went from the Nephites to the Lamanites and stirred them to anger against the Nephites. With the help of a Lamanite army, they obtained Nephite possessions in the land southward in the fifty-eighth and fifty-ninth years of the judges (Helaman 4:4-8).