The Federalist Papers, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay is a collection of essays advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution. “These essays first appeared in the New York papers unidentified in 1787 and 1788 under the name 'Publius.'” In total there is eighty-five essays written, but the most distinguished and the most quoted is Federalist Ten and Fifty-One. In those articles James Madison argues that a large republic and federal government structure built around the principle of seperation of powers will prevent any single person or faction from gaining control of government to the deparment of the people or a minority of the people, but was he correct? Lets examine our system of government as it
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Federalist Ten expresses two main points: First, corruption and bad behavior can be controlled by having a large republic. Second, the larger the republic, the larger the faction becomes and the larger the faction becomes the less faction is going to be able to be unified. What is a faction? A faction is a group of people with a certain mindset or politial belief and it was believed these factions were bad for a healthy democracy. Madison believed factions are dangerous because people are selfish, biased, often overcome with emotion, unreasonable, and so groups can amplify all of these bad tendencies. When a faction gains political power, it is likely to: pursure its own interests zealously, trample the rights of others, and govern without concern for the “public good.” “The most common creater of faction is unequal distribution of property.” For example, the rich vs. the poor. To remedy faction there were two possibilities: Control the source of faction, and control the effects of factions. “Liberty is to facation what air is to fire.” Meaning without the nourishment of liberty, faction instantly dies. Obviously you cannot control the source of faction because different opinions will always exist as long as people are free and self-love …show more content…
Madison concludes the solution is having a government with a large republic. The benefits of a large republic include better representation, diverse opinions, geographic diversity, less powerful factions, and the political minorities (the rich) are more protected from the majority (the poor). So in a sense a large republic sets off the force of the faction; therefore, one large faction really is not going to be able to control things because it has already been split up. The idea is the faction is so large it is difficult to get it to unify because you have other breakdowns in demographics and interests. For example, some people are very pro god, some of them want gun control, some people want tax cuts, and some want schools improved, etc. As a result, the large faction becomes even
Federalist Ten expresses two main points: First, corruption and bad behavior can be controlled by having a large republic. Second, the larger the republic, the larger the faction becomes and the larger the faction becomes the less faction is going to be able to be unified. What is a faction? A faction is a group of people with a certain mindset or politial belief and it was believed these factions were bad for a healthy democracy. Madison believed factions are dangerous because people are selfish, biased, often overcome with emotion, unreasonable, and so groups can amplify all of these bad tendencies. When a faction gains political power, it is likely to: pursure its own interests zealously, trample the rights of others, and govern without concern for the “public good.” “The most common creater of faction is unequal distribution of property.” For example, the rich vs. the poor. To remedy faction there were two possibilities: Control the source of faction, and control the effects of factions. “Liberty is to facation what air is to fire.” Meaning without the nourishment of liberty, faction instantly dies. Obviously you cannot control the source of faction because different opinions will always exist as long as people are free and self-love …show more content…
Madison concludes the solution is having a government with a large republic. The benefits of a large republic include better representation, diverse opinions, geographic diversity, less powerful factions, and the political minorities (the rich) are more protected from the majority (the poor). So in a sense a large republic sets off the force of the faction; therefore, one large faction really is not going to be able to control things because it has already been split up. The idea is the faction is so large it is difficult to get it to unify because you have other breakdowns in demographics and interests. For example, some people are very pro god, some of them want gun control, some people want tax cuts, and some want schools improved, etc. As a result, the large faction becomes even