Compare And Contrast James Madison And Jean Jacques Rousseau

James Madison and Jean Jacques Rousseau had a lot in common. They are both classic liberals and lived around the same time period. They do have their differences but they are not as contradictory as one may think. This essay will discuss the views of the way they viewed the government, democracy, social contract, and ontological foundations. Looking at both of their views on these subjects and comparing them, readers can see just how similar the two philosophers are. Madison believed in a strong government. Specifically a strong federal government. He wanted the federal government to have broad power. He had a number of reasons that a federal government would make more sense than a smaller state or city government. First, he was worried about the states having more power than the federal government. He believed that, where the states had to represent smaller minorities, the states would ultimately fail to protect minority rights. The federal government would work better at protecting minorities, because the states together, as a nation, would have a greater population of minorities. Secondly, Madison believed that by combining interests and people, there would be a

They both agreed that the type of government that they wanted was one run by the people themselves. The best way to describe the difference between the two is that Madison was a moderate advocate of democracy while Rousseau was an extreme advocate of democracy. Madison did have to actually deal with forming a working government that had to be in play while Rousseau had the ability to simply ponder and write about what he thought was best. They certainly had their differences but they are in the same type of field. They were not arguing against one another from opposite sides of the field, such as Democracy vs Totalitarianism, but rather what way is best to carry out a government run by the people. Madison and Rousseau where very