ipl-logo

Argument Against Majority Rule

804 Words4 Pages

For that reason, an essential characteristic of democracy must be the people 's right to change the majority through elections. This right is the people 's "supreme authority." Therefore, the minority must have the right to strive for becoming the majority and retain all the rights required to compete fairly in elections, speech, assembly, association, because otherwise the majority would turn out to be everlasting and develop into a dictatorship. Therefore, the majority in lieu and time, ensuring the minority the right to seek to become a majority is paramount.
Anti-Federalists and Federalists alike believed rule by majority a troubling enigma. From a theory point of view, majority rule was essential for conveying the popular will and …show more content…

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.”
In Federalist 51 Madison claims, “In the extended republic of the United States, and among the great variety of interests, parties, and sects which it embraces, a coalition of a majority of the whole society could seldom take place upon any other principles than those of justice and the general good.” In addition, the Constitutional separation of powers also helps avoiding the mistakes of swiftness and passion. Moreover, freedom of speech and press permit everybody who does not agree with a piece of legislation to make is views known, and to criticize unscrupulous legislation and bad

Show More
Related
403 Words | 2 Pages

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

Read More
501 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
633 Words | 3 Pages

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands… may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” (Document B) The Madison quote shows that no person or persons should acquire all powers of the government otherwise it will become a tyranny. Hence our government is split into three branches, all with different powers, so that we may have a separation of powers to protect against tyranny. This separation of powers helps prevent one group from taking over the other two so that our country shall not be ruled by a tyrant

Read More
343 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
463 Words | 2 Pages

“The accumulation of all powers..in the same hands, whether of one or many (is) the very definition of tyranny.” (James Madison, Federalist Paper #47, 1788) ( Background Essay) This quote explains the reasoning for one of the framers, (B) Separation of Powers. The framers of the constitution were created to prevent tyranny and create a stronger government that would hold the nation together. Tyranny ultimately means harsh, absolute power in the hands of one individual-- like a king or dictator. The constitution guarded against tyranny in 4 ways: (A)Federalism, (B)Separation of Powers, (C)Checks & Balances, and (D)Small State-Large State.

Read More
197 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More
978 Words | 4 Pages

10 in an attempt to ratify the Constitution, the new form of government for the United States. In the Federalist Paper No. 10, Madison analyzed the way to deal with facts, made a comparison between a pure democracy and a republic, and made another comparison on whether a small government or a large government would be the best for America. He informed the people that there is not a way to completely get rid of factions, but there are ways to deal with them. One great way to deal with factions is by having a government that knows how to control and deal with their effects. Madison believes that a republic can do that job better than a democracy, because a democracy is a small society of people who can not admit there is a cure to factions.

Read More
719 Words | 3 Pages

Madison brings up that it isn’t possible to divide power absolutely equally and “In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.” (2). And so, the legislative branch will be divided even more to try and combat the unbalance of power. Madison thought this system was a good method because he believed that it was part of human nature to have conflicting ideas and wants, and so each branch could keep the others in line and therefor no one power is above the others. Furthermore, Madison believes a bigger government with multiple branches is better because then it becomes difficult for one

Read More
1361 Words | 6 Pages

This development is more characterized by elitism than it is the case of pluralism in nature since many unfolding events or outcomes are more typical of the elite form of worldviews and actions. One of the major factors associated with this is that the associates to the constitutional convention comprised majorly of those of European decent, affluent associates of the “upper class.” This particular group of people sought a strong central administration that was meant to congeal their own power, influence, and interest in the best way they wanted it to become. Even though the convention was alleged to have been held with the view of modifying the articles of the confederation that had been guiding administration, other partakers thought otherwise. This is so because, Hamilton and Madison fought for an absolutely novel form of administration that they deemed more superior and suitable than the one that was in place those

Read More
492 Words | 2 Pages

The continuing struggle to achieve civil rights despite the Civil Rights Movement highlights the ways in which the Madisonian Democratic system is failing in the United States. Madisonian Democracy and a majoritarian understanding of democracy are based on similar ideas but have a distinct and important difference: protection of minorities and individual rights. A majoritarian democracy is one in which the majorities win without consideration for minority rights and is, perhaps, democracy in it’s simplest form – the people or the elected officials vote, and the majority vote wins. A Madisonian Democracy is a composite form of government. Like a majoritarian democracy, the majority opinion holds most the power, however, checks and balances are put in place to ensure a protection of minority and individual rights, as well as minimize the risk of abusive uses of power.

Read More
1019 Words | 5 Pages

Influential public leaders who accepted the Federalist label included John Adams and Alexander Hamilton”. Federalists believed in a strong central government and believed in limiting who could participate in government. “(Federalists) its style was elitist, and its leaders scorned democracy, widespread suffrage, and open elections”.

Read More
562 Words | 3 Pages

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

Read More
657 Words | 3 Pages

A majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism” (Basler,

Read More
1561 Words | 7 Pages

James Madison created the separation of powers to maximize

Read More
543 Words | 3 Pages

James Madison wrote Federalist 51 over 200 years ago, yet its words still impact today’s government in 2016. When writing Federalist 51, Madison had two main objectives in mind; he wanted a government with a separation of powers, and he also wanted minorities to be protected. Both of his objectives have been accomplished and continue to be present in today’s American government with the latter objective being more present in today’s government even more so than in the past. To begin with, power is separated in today’s government, preventing a single person or group from having absolute power since, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” according to John Dalberg-Acton. The American government is composed of three branches which power is separated amongst.

Read More

More about Argument Against Majority Rule

Related Topics

Open Document