James Madison Political Theory

It could be said that there has never been a greater disparity between the physical and mental attributes of a man than James Madison. Physically, he was described as tiny, soft-spoken, and generally unimpressive. Mentally, he was an unmatched giant, revered as one of the greatest philosophical minds in the history of mankind. What sets Madison apart from the rest of the great philosophers in history is the fact that he descended from the world of political theory into the realm of reality and brought down with him a formula which has been the bedrock of the most successful form of government this world has ever seen. Before the constitutional convention in 1787, the world had no successful and proven method of self-government for America to

They are necessary is because their causes are woven into the fabric of human nature. In Federalist No. 10, James Madison explains that there are only two ways to cure society from the problems of factions: by eliminating its causes, or controlling its effects. Some of the brightest political minds in the history of the world have debated which way will produce the most favorable result. To summarize Madison’s conclusion, he believed that the causes of factions can never be destroyed. Therefore, the best strategy to implement is to control its

Madison, therefore, determined that each branch of government required, “the necessary constitutional means, and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others… each must have the wherewithal to defend themselves and the motivation to do so” (Madison, 1786). By forcing the branches of government to compete over these powers, their personal motives commit them to the preservation of the whole. Professor Matthew Spalding explains that in his time, Madison was alone in understanding that the ability of one political branch to defend itself requires some power over the other branches (Spalding, 2016). Critics argued that this sharing of powers between the political branches would lead to tyranny. Conversely, Madison argued that without this limited blending of powers, the various branches would not have the means to defend their spheres of influence from the encroachments of other branches. Accordingly, these blended powers would make the degree of separation, which they aspired to in theory, possible to maintain in practice. While James Madison’s resume boasts a legion of impressive contributions to the American system of government and political science as a whole, none were greater than his propositions put forth in his famous essay’s, Federalist No. 10 on political factions, and Federalist No. 51 on the separation of