ipl-logo

Constitutional Convention: Mistrustful Of Democracy

493 Words2 Pages

Americans in general view America as an ideal democracy in which every citizen has a voice and the views of the public have the power to shape the country. It is somewhat ironic, then, that the Constitutional Convention as a whole was mistrustful of democracy. Perhaps the most prominent holder of this opinion was James Madison, who was very vocal about the oppressive results of majority rule. Madison was of the opinion that the best way to ensure liberty was not leave it in the hands of the general public, but rather to split the federal government and allow each of the resulting branches curtail the power of the others. As Madison said in Federalist No. 51, “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition”. Madison’s views on ambition were integrated into the political structure of the country by limiting democratic citizen participation in government and …show more content…

Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10 that democracies “have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” This belief led the Constitutional Convention to drastically limit popular participation in government action. Even the president is not voted in by popular vote, and is rather selected by electorates, who were themselves originally selected by state legislatures. So essentially, the public would vote for the legislator, who would vote for the electorate, who would finally vote for the president. The justices of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, are selected by the president and confirmed by congress rather than voted on. The Supreme Court Justices, then, are free to make decisions without fear of losing

Show More
Related
297 Words | 2 Pages

In May 25, 1787, a convention was called in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to express the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. However, the intention from many delegates was to draft a new constitution; create a new government rather than fix the existing one. Rhode Island was the only one of the 13 original states to refuse to send delegates to the Constitutional Convention. At the Convention, the first issues they had to address was the representation in Congress.

Read More
243 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More
882 Words | 4 Pages

“The accumulation of all powers… in the same hands, whether one, a few, or many… may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny. ”-James Madison. Fifty-five delegates, from the thirteen states, met in Philadelphia in May of 1787 to discuss and revise the Articles of Confederation. The chief executive and the representatives worked to create a frame for what is now our Constitution. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways; Federalism that creates a State and Federal government, Separation of Powers that gives equal power to the three branches, Checks and Balances that create balance in the three branches by checking each other and being checked and the Small States vs the Big States ensures an equal voice for all states no matter what their size.

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
269 Words | 2 Pages

Madison might have precipitated a state that cultivated his dear political relation, but due to the way he carried out his choices, this would minify deliberate rivalry. Madison 's final goal was to restrict federal authority; He was barely an authentic

Read More
1861 Words | 8 Pages

James Madison’s main ideas in Federalist 10 were about factions and how to remove the causes but also control the effects. He described a faction as “By a faction, I understand a number if citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community (“The Federalist #10).” Madison was correct in his statements about removing the causes and controlling the effects of factions. During the time Federalist 10 was written the Federalists were using the papers to help convince the states to ratify the Constitution.

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
295 Words | 2 Pages

James Madison's assertion, "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition," was a crucial development in the making of the American government. This quote shows that Madison knew that Americans had a strong ambition, which meant that these Americans' citizenship would be powerful. These men lived in America when the U.S. Constitution had an instructable will to be involved with the government based on their freedom from Great Britain, so these men would have a large percentage in popular participation and would take advantage of their citizenship. Therefore in this idea, Madison knew that with these men being ambitious, the government also had to be ambitious. After this idea, he knew that not just one person could run the government but

Read More
177 Words | 1 Pages

After reading The Federalist Papers #10, 48, and 51 I believe that James Madison saw human nature as being selfish and self-centered, "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition" (319). Madison continues on to explicate on his previous thought, "It may be a reflection of human nature that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government" (319). The devices that he talks about are the checks and balances that Madison declares that the government needs. The government needs the checks and balances because Madison believes that trusting one man to govern everything just feeds the selfishness inside the chosen man, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary" (319).

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
542 Words | 3 Pages

The political theory of that states that all interest groups should compete for influence in the government is formally referred to as pluralism. James Madison understood that there will always be a conflict of interests in a society, resulting from factions, and instead of trying to remove the factions, he sought to control their effects. He illustrates how this can be done in his essay, Federalist 10, while he argues in favor of a representative form of government, that includes separated powers. He believed that if there were multiple factions competing for influence, the governments interests would shift from term to term due to the changing factions in office. This type of majority rule is referred to as a Madisonian Majority, which is

Read More
1862 Words | 8 Pages

Constitutional Convention: America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, will suffer no longer under the tyrannical British government but will flourish under the enlightened republic America has come to known today. The American people struggled as one, one united group of citizens in the fight for unalienable rights protected under a sturdy government. The American spirit was seen as early as the Age of Exploration in the mid-17th century, foreigners at the time, but with common motives: God, gold, and glory [2]. My ancestors sought to spread the Christian religion to as many Natives as possible, in hopes of one day restoring their savageness and instilling a devout life amongst the Lord. The intention to broaden their influence

Read More
378 Words | 2 Pages

All of the representatives from each of the colonies came together during the Constitutional Convention. During this convention they then rewrote seven Articles. Each Article explained certain powers and how each of the three branches worked. The framers wrote detailed explanations for each Article for a certain reason. The Articles were very detailed because the leaders reading the Constitution, and the citizens of the United States, needed to be able to understand the conditions clearly.

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 Constitutional Convention: Mistrustful Of Democracy

Related Topics

Open Document