One of the greatest purveyors of our United States constitution was James Madison. By many he is regarded as the father of our constitution and his ideals about the nature of man helped shape the role of government, as well as the role of its citizens. Madison was the U.S. Secretary of State from 1801 to 1809 as well as our nation’s president from 1809 until 1817. Madison felt as though his generation, as well as the fellow founders, could revive popular government from its past blunders and that ultimate success was in the form of a more self-governed legislative body. During 1787 and 1788 Madison co-authored, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, a commentary on the principles of the constitution called the Federalist Papers. Being …show more content…
Madison described factions as a number of citizens “united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”[1] In a society of majority rule minority factions are not seen as constitutionally dangerous, due to them lacking the means the legally acquire power. However, if a faction is deemed the majority then the very essence of freedom and government are threatened. Madison argued that factions are a product of prejudice and self- interests that stem from the nature of man. Madison believed that the key to preventing an unjust majority was a governing body that reflected the principle of representation for a very large and diverse base of constituents. Representation prevents unjust views and special interests from guiding and establishing public decisions. The role of the representative is also to listen to their body of constituents and overall public interests to promote a consensus founded on the good of the public. Madison believed that true representation is a two way line of communication between the representative and the represented, and from that an overall consensus can be reached. Madison’s ideas of representation are still very much a part of our government today, as seen in the very structure of our modern day legislative bodies from district to state as
James Madison’s Federalist 10 was written amid criticisms that a republican form of government had never been successful on a large scale. Madison’s argument was that a well-constructed union could control factions. He argued that in order to control factions from their causes, we would need to either give up liberty or free thought. Since we cannot infringe upon these two natural rights, we must move on to controlling the effects. A republic, Madison argues, would be able to do this because the people choose the representatives, and they choose representatives who they feel best represent their opinions.
Historical Essay #2: James Madison and Patrick Henry Ashleyann Mabatid Azusa Pacific University College James Madison and Patrick Henry In this essay, I will be discussing James Madison and Patrick Henry. James Madison wrote the first drafts of the U.S. Constitution, co-wrote the Federalist Papers and sponsored the Bill of Rights. He helped with the Democrat-Republican Party with President Thomas Jefferson.
Federalist Paper No. 10, which was written by James Madison, addresses the question of how to guard against factions. He defined “factions” as a group of citizens who are united and have a common interest that is dangerous to either the rights of other citizens, or the permanent and cumulative interests of the community. Madison argued that a strong, large republic would be a better guard against these dangers than a smaller republic. Both supporters and opponents of the plan are concerned with the political instability produced by these factions. The most powerful faction will control the government and make decisions based not on the common good, but only to benefit them self.
Madison rhapsodizes at length about the dangers of factionalism under majority rule; he claims that “popular government [...] enables [the majority] to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest, both the public good and the rights of other citizens”, thus insinuating that popular rule in a system where “the causes of factionalism cannot be prevented” will ultimately devastate both the working class’s public good and the elite class’s private right (10). This fear mongering over majority rule acts as a ringing endorsement of the alternative: minority, or elite, political dominance. To ease the minds of his readers, Madison then declares that the working class of the new republic will be too spread out and otherwise divided to oppose the just government established by the upper class–or, in his words, lower classes will be “rendered, by their number and local situation, unable to concert and carry into effect schemes of oppression” against the elite (10). In this way, Madison promotes upper class rule as a means to protect American liberty, believing that the people at large were unfit to establish this protection themselves–and that they had neither the intelligence nor the unity to carry out their corrupt schemes under properly conducted elite
Madison begins Federalist 10 by stating that a well-functioning government should be able to prevent and control factions and their effects. A faction is any group of people who hold a shared interest and whose common interest either hinders the rights of others in society or harms society as a whole. Although factions cause confusion and violence to occur in a society, no government will be able to stop factions from developing; Madison states that this is because, in order to destroy factions, one would need to destroy liberty. Along with not being able to abolish factions, Madison asserts that it is impractical to try to control factions because individuals will always have differing opinions; he also articulates that the main purpose of governments is to protect
Popular sovereignty can be seen when Madison writes “the representatives of the people, will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves”. The idea of pluralism is included because he acknowledged the existences of different factions and their own purpose which are diverse. The republican principle may be viewed as he states “If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular
James Madison published Federalist 51 on February 8, 1788. The Federalist 51 explains that the purpose of the essay is to help readers understand the structure of the proposed government that makes liberty possible. Madison believes that each branch should be independent,and not depend on others. If they actually followed what Madison proposed that meant that the citizens would select the president, the legislators and the judges. The only position that would suffer the most is the judge 's position, because not many citizens are aware of what the qualifications for judges are.
A key concept in Madisonian Democracy is preventing the domination of a factions, or “groups motivated by selfish interests against the common good” (Bianco). Also important to the concept of a Madisonian government is pluralism – the idea that having a variety of contesting parties will ensure that no one group can completely control the majority vote and take power. One can see the basis of a Madisonian Democracy in the modern United States government and the understanding of those who work in it. Illinois State Senator from the 9th District Daniel Bliss said, “when I find something immensely frustrating, I ask myself am I frustrated because something is broken and corrupt or because I didn’t get to be the emperor? And every time it is option B, I remind myself that is actually a positive thing, because this way we never have
The Federalist No. 10” is a persuasive argument written by James Madison in an attempt to ratify the Constitution. He wrote a series of documents called the Federalist Papers under a pseudonym to convince others to approve of the Constitution. He says that factions are not good for America, neither is a pure democracy. Madison provides extensive arguments and remedies for the problems he is addressing. James Madison is attempting to ratify the Constitution by analyzing the way to deal with factions, comparing a republic to a democracy, and by comparing a small government to a large government.
Former President James Madison is most known as the Father of the Constitution, but many don’t know that he was instrumental in the ratification of the Constitution with his writing in the Federalist Papers. Federalist 39 and 46 focus on the theme of federalism and the impact it has on the Constitution. Madison’s arguments had the goal of convincing the people of the importance of the Constitution, because the Constitution stood no chance of ratification if the populous did not favor it. Madison starts Federalist 39 by explaining that the Constitution would create a shift toward a republican style of government, where citizens would be represented by a congressman in the legislative branch.
James Madison’s presidency can be very controversial, many had thought that he had a difficult time pulling away from wars as well as making uninformed decisions that ended up hurting merchants, but even with those setbacks, he is still considered an amazing statesman. This is because he had a lot of history working in the government such as how Madison had completed graduate studies within the law before he had begun involved with the government. This means that he had plenty of knowledge and experience with laws in the government, he had first started out with local politics and began working his way up to the Secretary of State under Jefferson's presidency. His position in the house of representatives from 1789-1797 and the secretary of
Madison believed the solution, or cure, to resolving the problems caused by factions was to allow a larger number of citizens to vote for their representative. Madison theorized that by doing this the representative would reflect the views of their constituents and would win based on merit, thus, controlling the effects of
The former is impossible, as any society is bound to have a majority of citizens who share common beliefs or ideas, and a minority of others who feel differently. This leaves only one option; to limit the authority of the majority and prevent them from dominating the minority. In order to prevent corruption or oppression, power must be distributed in a way that inhibits any one person or group from gaining too much of it. 4.) How does this essay by Madison tie into the separation of powers and checks and balances in the constitution?
Federalist 51 is a primary source from the time of the creation of the constitution. It was written by James Madison on February 8, 1788. It is an essay describing the Constitution 's usage of checks and balances system and why it was needed. At the time, the constitution was newly written. So, under the pseudonym of Publius; James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and James Jay: three federalists (people who supported the constitution and favored a strong central government with power shared between states), wrote the Federalist Papers.
Progressing towards a conclusion, Madison and Calhoun agreed that in a system based on majority rule, there was a danger that the majority would oppress the minority. But Madison believed that this issue was best tackled and would be likely resolved through the rules and mechanisms that would make the majority act more fairly and consciously. Calhoun proposed a very different solution. Madison’s solution is best articulated in Federalist No. 10 and No. 51, he argues that “the danger of a majority oppressing a minority is much greater in a state or city, where there are usually just two or three factions contending with one another, than in a large, diverse republic like the United States, where there are many different factions and interests, no one of them constituting a majority.”