In Federalist Papers 10 and 51, James Madison offers his insight upon the ends and means of government. He outlines his beliefs on human nature, representation, and separation of power. He sets out to explain the tendency of humans to create factions. These factions take away rights of the minority, hurting the government as a whole. Next, he discusses the advantages of a republic compared to a pure democracy. This republic he argues about is the one outlined in the Constitution. Finally, the last advantage of the Constitution Madison lays out is the separation of power. This separation safeguards the people from being part of an autocratic government. Overall, James Madison thoughtfully expresses his beliefs on why this new American experiment
…show more content…
In his opinion, he believes there should be three forms of government that are mostly independent. He thought that in order to hinder the coalescence of the departments into one large department, “the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others”(51) must be administered. This system of checks allows the separated powers to have liberties while also being able to ensure the fairness in power of other departments. Repeating Madison’s idea of human nature being imperfect, he states: “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”(51) In this system created by the Constitution, one department’s ambition and need for power hinders the other department’s liberty. In order to possess power, the departments must find an equal balance. This equal balance is “necessary to control the abuses of government.”(51) Although equal separation of power is ideal, “the legislative authority necessarily predominates.”(51) In order to impede this predomination, the Constitution splits the legislative branch in the House and the Senate. Overall, this separation of power ensures the most liberty for all and inhibits the creation of an overly powerful
In his opinion, he believes there should be three forms of government that are mostly independent. He thought that in order to hinder the coalescence of the departments into one large department, “the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others”(51) must be administered. This system of checks allows the separated powers to have liberties while also being able to ensure the fairness in power of other departments. Repeating Madison’s idea of human nature being imperfect, he states: “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”(51) In this system created by the Constitution, one department’s ambition and need for power hinders the other department’s liberty. In order to possess power, the departments must find an equal balance. This equal balance is “necessary to control the abuses of government.”(51) Although equal separation of power is ideal, “the legislative authority necessarily predominates.”(51) In order to impede this predomination, the Constitution splits the legislative branch in the House and the Senate. Overall, this separation of power ensures the most liberty for all and inhibits the creation of an overly powerful