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james madison's view on factions
james madison's view on factions
james madison's view on factions
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In discussing the Madisonian Dilemma, one must first ask, “How do you give government enough authority to preserve social order and communal values, but not so much that it places unfair and inappropriate limits on individual freedom of choice?” (Bond & Smith 2013, p. 111) This delicate balance between governmental rights and individual freedoms has been a source of much contention and debate. James Madison, a primary framer of the Constitution and author of 30 of the Federalist Papers, believed that the only way this balance of power could be achieved was through controlling the effects of factions through a representative government, fragmenting the power of that government and creating a system of checks and balances within, and abiding by a written constitution. (Bond & Smith, p 55-59).
Factions will arise based on people’s beliefs, opinions, and interests. Madison said, “Liberty is to faction what air is to fire.” (Madison, 1787) Since liberty is the fuel of factions, as well as the foundation of the nation, the removal of it would destroy democracy. Madison surmised that the only way to deal with factions is to control their effects. (Madison, 1787). This can best be accomplished through forming a republic, meaning a representative form of government. Each state elects, by popular vote, a predetermined number of representatives. Each representative is then then the spokesperson for his or her constituency. This representative form of government allows the citizens of the United States to participate, albeit indirectly, in the governance of the country. This not only protect the rights of the minority, but it allows the voice of the majority to be heard.
Creating a representative form of government was a start, but ...
... middle of paper ...
...outcomes are reached and liberties protected. It is only when one branch of the government attempts to circumvent the established process of governance that these solutions will fail. The failure of the checks and balances system, or the lack separation of powers, can create a tyrannical government that usurps the freedom of the people.
Works Cited
Bond, R. & Smith, K. (2013). Analyzing American Democracy: Politics and Political Science. New York: Routledge. p. 55-59, 111
Madison, J. (1787, November 22). The Same Subject Continued: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection. New York Daily Advertiser, p.1
Madison J. (1788, February 6). The Same Subject Continued: The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments. New York Daily Advertiser, p.1)
U.S. Const. art. I, § 8
The republic should be able to, “guard the society against the oppression of its rulers,” but also “guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part.” If a nation is not primarily run by the people, then the government has the ability to oppress them by implementing taxes and laws and revoking basic rights without their consent (as witnessed in the events preceding the Revolutionary War). The separate state governments did not allow every person to have a voice for their country even though “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government.” However, if too much authority is in the hands of the citizens, then, “the rights of the minority will be insecure,” because majority groups will be, “united by a common interest.” One analysis of these rights states that the “community will” (good intention of the government) is, “independent of the simple majority,” and that a government placing “power behind a group in society working against the public good” would be detrimental. Madison’s intention discussing factions is that we must strike a balance between representing the common interests of the people while not excluding minorities and placing trust in an unjust popular interest. The government of today takes into account Madison’s extensive concept of factionalism which includes the Republican, Democratic, and
James Madison once said,” All men having power ought to be distrusted.” Through these words, Madison made the statement that not all government officials use their authority for good; some abuse that power and use it to gain more for themselves rather than vesting it within the people. This issue may lead to tyranny. Tyranny is when all powers belong to only one person or group. In May of 1787, the Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia to draft a better constitution. One of the topics that concerned many was how the constitution would guard against tyranny. Madison and the other delegates wanted a Constitution that would be strong enough to unite the states and the people together without letting there be one person or group gain too much power. They achieved this in several ways. Today, the U.S. Constitution guards against tyranny by including a separation of powers, federalism, and the fair representation of states.
Madison, James. “The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments”. 8 February 1788. The Library of Congress. Web. 19 September 2013. :
9. Hamilton, Alexander and James Madison, "Federalist Papers: The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments," The New York Packet, No. 51, 1788.
In today 's government political parties are a large part of government operations and how decisions are made in the government. In Madison 's The Federalist, No.10 Madison talked about how factions can control and cause harm to the government. A solution to this control was the use of a republic in order to limit the power of factions and keep them from having complete control. In our government however, factions have become a major part of the government system with political parties having complete control over the different branches of government. The use of this two political party system creates many problems within our government as the two parties fight for control over legislature and control over the government. Despite using a republic system as Madison mentions in his paper, factions continue to control and affect our government today. Madison 's views on government branches also affects our government today. Our government being in branches does help our government from being affected by corruption by each branch being independent from each other. These independent branches help prevent corruption by each branch having independent leadership and control and not being affected by the views of each other. At the same time these branches having unique views and control can lead to problems as the branches of government may not be able to interact properly with
During his entire life, James Madison, who is one of the founding fathers, contributed many dedications to the States, especially when creating the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As the fourth president of the U.S, he consciously chose to create a new model of presidential power that he thought would fit better with the system of the separation of powers after seeing “the danger overwrought executive power poses to republican constitutionalism” (Kleinerman). Despite of having such good intention, some of his actions led the country through some significant suffers.
James Madison, an American statesman and political theorist that was present at the constitutional convention. Many of the ideas proposed by Madison are part of the reason that the Constitution has withstood the test of time. Madison was ultimately prepared to deal with one of the biggest problems this new government would face in his eyes, factions. Factions, which as defined by Madison are “a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are 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” (Madison 156). Madison addresses various ways that he sees factions can be cured of its mischiefs such as removing a faction’s causes and also controlling their effects. Madison points out that this is would potentially create an even bigger problem than the factions themselves by stating, “Liberty is to faction, what air is to fire, an ailment, without which it instantly expires” (Madison 156) Madison also stated that the way for a government to remove the cause of faction was either to destroy the liberty that causes factions to exist in the first place or to give every citizen the same beliefs and opinions. Madison deemed this impractical, because it is nearly impossible to give everyone in a given place the same opinions and destroying the liberty would take away the very thing that the colonies fought for 4 years earlier. The fact is Madison knew that the country wouldn’t be able to count on a well-educated statesman to be there any time a faction gets out of hand. Madison knew the only viable way to keep factions under control is not to get rid of factions entirely but to set a r...
Consistent to eighteenth-century ethos left the Constitution-makers with great faith in universals. They believed in an inexorable view of a self-interested man. Feeling that all me were naturally inclined to be bad they sought a compromising system of checks and balances for government. This was bolstered by the scientific work by Newton, ?in which metaphors sprang as naturally to mens minds as did biological metaphors in the Darwinian atmosphere of the late nineteenth century.? Therefore Madison and others thought to squelch the possibly dangerous majority by setting up a large number and variety of local interests, so that the people will ?be unable to concert and carry into effect their scheme of oppression.? And thus, chief powers went to the propertied.
James Madison was a very intelligent man and was one of the forefathers for our country. In Madison’s Federalist Paper Number 10 he describes the need to control factions in the United States and how the government is to do so. The Federalist papers are a key point in describing how to control “factions” that are so dangerous to the young government, or so Madison feels. In Madison’s paper he clearly lays out his idea on the sources of factions, his feelings on democracy versus a republic, and how to control factions.
In Federalist No. 10, James Madison stresses that “measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.” Madison philosophized that a large republic, composed of numerous factions capable of competing with each other and the majority must exist in order to avoid tyranny of majority rule.# When Federalist No. 10 was published, the concept of pluralism was not widely used. However, the political theory that is the foundation for United States government was the influential force behind pluralism and its doctrines.
In 1791, the Bill of Rights, consisting of 10 amendments, was ratified into the constitution. The document’s purpose was to spell out the liberties of the people that the government could not infringe upon. Considered necessary by many at the time of its development, the Bill of Rights became the cause for a huge debate between two different factions: The Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists were those who thought that there should be a new Union created with a strong centralized government and individual regional governments. They felt that it was not necessary for there to be a bill of rights because it was implied that those rights the Constitution did not specifically state would be handed down to the states. On the other hand, the Anti-Federalists were opposed to such a form of government on the grounds that the Constitution, in which it was outlined, lacked clarity in the protections of the individuals. The Anti-Federalists—whose memory of British oppression was still fresh in their minds—wanted certain rights and guarantees that were to be apart of the constitution (Glasser 1991). A clear demonstration of the Anti-Federalist attitude was performed by Samuel Bryan, who published a series of essays named the ‘Cenitnal Essays,’ which “assailed the sweeping power of the central government, the usurpation of state sovereignty, and the absence of a bill of rights guaranteeing individual liberties such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion (Bran 1986).” Of course, the freedoms stated above are a portion and not the whole of The Bill of Rights. Ultimately, The Bill of Rights was adopted to appease the Anti-Federalists, whose support was necessary to ratify the constitution, and who believed that without the liberties granted therein, the new constitution—that they thought was vague and granted too much power to the central government—would give way to an elite tyrannical government.
Hudson, William E. American Democracy in Peril: Eight Challenges to America’s Future – Fourth Edition. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2004.
...he other hand, Madison discusses the topic of liberty in that it is what fuels factions. He says that removing liberty is one of the only ways to destroy a faction. He proceeds to state that this is not probable, and that factions can not be destroyed, but we must control their consequences in order to have a stable government. Madison believes that the Constitution preserves man's liberty by fairly representing them in a central government.
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself,” are words written by James Madison in The Federalist Papers No. 51. The Federalist Paper No. 51 is one of several documents that compose the Federalist Papers, a series of essays written by James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton promoting the ratification of the Constitution. In this particular paper, several principles are used as arguments for ratification. Specifically, a main argument discussed is the means this government would have to self-regulate itself. Following the sentence quoted above is, “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.” The auxiliary precautions Madison refers to is one of the many principles of our government that is still in action today, a system of checks and balances. Such a principle was born from the Constitution as a result of the existence of three branches and their division of powers.
In conclusion, Madison thinks the human nature is ambitious, and the fixed outcome of human ambitions is people create factions to promote their own interests. In the case of preventing corrupt or mischief by factions, he believes majority and pure democracy is not a solution. The method he advocated is a large republic with checking system. He converts human ambition to provide internal checks and balances in government. His point of view stimulated the approval of the proposal of the United States Constitution.