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Federalists 10 summary
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Tola APGOPO 10/9/12 Exemplar Large Republic: Best Control of Effects of Factions Federalist 10 Summary: In Federalist 10, James Madison or Publius asserts that the Constitution establishes a government capable of controlling the violence and damage caused by factions. He states that Antifederalist complain that the government is too unstable, claim rival parties disregard the public good, and that decisions are made by the majority rather than by justice and the rights of the minority. Madison goes on to define a faction as a group of citizens, either a majority or minority, whose actions are motivated by a passion or interest that hurts the rights of other citizens or goes against the best interests of the
Perhaps the most famous Federalist paper, Federalist 10, starts off by saying that one of the biggest arguments that favors the Constitution is that it creates a government suited to minimize the harm caused by factions. Faction, in this case, is defined as a group of people whether a minority or majority based on class, race, and profession that all share a common interest. It was inevitable that factions would occur and perhaps the defining characteristic was the unequal distribution of property. This would ultimately lead the poor without property to become the majority in a “tyranny of the masses.” Madison believed that there were two solutions in preventing majority factions, 1) Remover the causes, and 2) Control the effects.
Throughout Federalist 10 Madison addresses the issue of political factions, or parties, and how they are a problem, and how to deal with them. Madison describes factions as like minded people who come together to impose their views on others. The first method Madison proposes is to remove the causes that make the faction, and the second being by controlling its effects. In order to do those things Madison says that we must destroy liberty, and give everyone the same opinions, passions and the interests respectfully. Neither of these ideas would work however because if you destroy liberty just because it gives rise to factions, you would be destroying something that is good just because it has a small side effect that can be seen as
Madison suggests removing the problem of faction “by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence (book).” He then goes on to say right after that in the fifth paragraph that destroying liberty would not work because it defeats the purpose of creating a free society and in the sixth paragraph he calls it impractical (need to cite?). Calling it impractical is a good point because if someone were to try and take liberty from everyone people would revolt and fight for their rights and possibly become more set in their faction which is the opposite of what they want. “Liberty is to faction what air is to fire” what Madison means is that wanting to get rid of liberty because of factions is like trying to get rid of air because it fuels fire, and without air we would die(book). The other thing Madison states in his first argument is the idea of “giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests (book).
Madison’s essay reflects the fear many had of a tyrannical government and the desire to ensure that the country didn’t revert back to that which it had just escaped from. He notes the necessity to prevent any one faction or group from gaining too much power and oppressing those in the minority. The separation of powers was set in place to ensure that this could not happen. Even if one group decides they want something, the other two have the equal authority to prevent it should it not represent the country as a whole.
In other words, Madison wanted federalism in our country. Because both state and local governments check each other due to their separate
Primary source reading 7.4 is an excerpt from “Federalist NO. 51” which was written in 1788 by James Madison. This excerpt is actually an essay written by Madison and published in the New York Packet that explains how the federal government will not become too powerful as the people think, and trying to convince people to get the constitution ratified. Primary source reading 7.5 is an excerpt from “Observations on the New Constitution and the Federal and State Conventions by a Columbian Patriot” written by Mercy Otis Warren in 1788. This excerpt is actually a pamphlet that was published as well. In this pamphlet, Warren criticizes the Constitution for thinking the federal government will get too much power and tries to get the people to reject
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.
Jun Zhang Both the Federalist Papers Numbers 10 and 51 are wrote by Madison and he talks about ways to deal with factions and the importance of having separation of powers in these two papers. Factions cannot be eliminated from the society, Madison argues in Federalist paper No.10, since factions are created from the differences in skills and properties owned by people, and people should have the freedom to have their own opinions. It is impractical to create social homogeneous as well -- although factions sometimes lead to conflicts on ideas, diversity is also very important to the development of society. Therefore Madison believes that we should control the damaging effects of factions instead of trying to remove the causes. Moreover, Madison thinks that majority factions are dangerous in the way that they only care about their own advantages and ignore the needs of those minority groups.
According to a quote from James Madison's Federalist paper #51 “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments [State and Federal], and the portion alloted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled from itself.” What this means is that James Madison wanted two kinds of governments, one that is larger (Federal) and one that is smaller (states). Therefore, Federalism guards against tyranny by dividing the powers between two distinct governments, giving the Federal Government some powers such as the power to Declare war, print money and coin money and make immigration laws, while the state Governments have the power to hold elections, establish schools, and pass marriage and divorce laws.
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.
Through this quote, James Madison tried to vocalize that if the powers of the state and central governments were divided, one would not be more influential in the regulation of the United States than the other. Each jurisdiction is able to influence separate parts of the government, hence meaning they would have to work together to benefit the nation as a whole, preventing against tyranny. Federalism plays a key role in the hindrance of tyranny through the
James Madison’s writing of Federalist No. 10 examines the issues regarding the original Articles of Confederation, weighing and balancing the options of creating an effective government from a Federalist perspective. Madison’s attempt is to give the majority the power such as in a true democracy, though this raises the issue such that the majority may be in the wrong. In this, people of the minorities such as Madison himself being a wealthy citizen would need to “watch out” for the majority that they just gave the power to. Madison discussed how a republic system may be a solution to such a problem. He feels as if a republic would solve many of these solutions, yet cause more at the same time.
Factions and Federalist Essay No. 10 The federalist papers were a series of 85 essays written to convince the citizens of New York to ratify the constitution. Federalist essay No.10, written by James Madison, discusses political factions and their effects. Madison’s definition of a faction is clearly stated in the essay.
Madison states in Federalist Papers, #10 the importance to control and prevent factions, which cause governments to