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James Madison's Essay On Federalist 10

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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 …show more content…

Under this type of government one groups interests are always expressed, and consequently, there is always a perpetual loser. This is not what Madison had in mind when he wrote Federalist 10, instead he argues that as long as there are multiple factions competing, the control, and therefore interests of the government should be moderate, as well as changing. He goes into more depth, arguing that a representative form of government is ideal, due to the representative’s ability to effectively represent smaller populations, such as states. He continues to explain that factitious leaders might be able to “kindle a flame”, but would be unable to progress their movement throughout the states due to a series of checks and balances. He describes to the reader that each branch of the government would have some control over the other, balancing out the governmental power, thus keeping the effects of factions to a minimum. Madison makes a compelling, and intelligent argument in Federalist 10. As stated previously, he builds this argument on the assumption that factions are part of human nature, and thus, cannot be controlled. This is key because most, if not all readers would agree they prefer to associate politically with like-minded people. This opens the door for Madison to further his argument by explaining how he plans to control the inevitable effects of factions. This is one of the strongest points of Madison’s argument, he simply explains how the power will be strategically divided, limiting the faction’s

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In the Federalist Paper number 51, Madison writes to the people of New York to explain that it is necessary for a separation of powers between the departments of the government. Madison, with the help of Hamilton, wrote the Federalist Papers to explain sections of the Constitution. In Federalist Paper number 51, Madison explains that the government does not have a strong structure on the outside, but creating a firm structure within the government could be a solution. The firmer structure would be the separation of powers. In order for the people to get a better idea and make a more accurate judgement about the separation of powers, Madison shares observations and puts them into simpler terms.

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James Madison argues in his article of The Federalist No.10, Our government was created to accomplished governing the aggression and corruption cause by factions. Madison characterizes factions as groups of individuals who assemble to secure and advance their exceptional financial interests and political suppositions. Despite the fact that these groups are inconsistent with one another, they conflict with citizens in general interest, and in general other citizens interests as a community. American people are divers by nature, having distinctive thoughts and viewpoints, with the capacities, and assets. Along these lines, people have a diverse interest on a basic level, interests which they will bolster, regularly to the detriment of different

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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

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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).

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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.

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In federalist Paper 10, James Madison supports the ratification of the constitution and the republican government by explaining how it would take care of and control problems caused by factions. Right of the bat he addresses h factions are integral to a country that has liberty and differences in people. Madison makes it clear that there is no possible way to remove factions without violating the rights of the people. He follows through with an explanation on how a republican government would be the best solution to handle such factions and how that would be implemented.

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The Federalist 10 was produced on November 22, 1787 and was written by James Madison. James Madison was the 4th President of The United States and is the author of the Federalist 10. Madison wrote the Federalist 10 to directly defend the ratification of the Constitution and in it he mainly focuses on factions and why we need them. Factions are groups of people with different opinions and even though they seem bad, Madison proved that we need them. In the Federalist 10 he states that there are two ways to remove faction one

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In the tenth article, James Madison talks about how to guard against factions, which is a group of citizens with similar interest that conflicts with others. Another article James Madison wrote was article Fifty-one, it deal with the separation of powers and checks and balances. Article ten and fifty-one was one of the most important article to ratify the constitution. In article ten, Madison states, “The inference to which we are brought is, that the CAUSES of faction cannot be removed, and the relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its EFFECTS.” which could be translated into that the constitution is able to control the grief by factions. In article fifty-one, James Madison find a way how to separate powers in the government, and explains how checks and balances could be used to separate powers.

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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.

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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.

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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

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The idea behind the separation of the federal and the state governments is once again to protect, and ensure, the liberty of the masses. By having two different governments, they can control each other, but also regulate themselves (executive, legislative, and judiciary branches). As for the protection of the minority, when the majority has an issue in common, then the rights of the minority become irrelevant. In the essay, Madison proposed two methods to avoid such tyranny. His first proposition was to create a “will” independent of society.

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James Madison, one of the founding fathers of America, was revolutionary in his ideas regarding American government and policies. James Madison, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, wrote arguably the most crucial evaluations of the future of American government and the logic of the newly improved US Constitution compared to the Articles of Confederation. Within Federalist Paper No.10, Madison mentions a groundbreaking idea of the “tyranny of the majority.” This idea, “tyranny of the majority,” examines the power that a majority can hold within a true democracy. Furthermore, this “tyranny of the majority” idea looks into the creation of “factions,” which Madison describes as a group of citizens with shared interests or beliefs that are contrary to the rights and interests of others or to the overall well-being of a community.

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In the case of taxation, the more powerful of the two parties would have the opportunity to impose higher taxes on the minority, thus, saving themselves money. Madison firmly believed that the constitution had the ability to solve the problems created by factions. Madison envisioned a large republic that would make it difficult for corrupt candidates to get elected. Madison expressed this by stating, In the next place, as each representative will be chosen by a greater number of citizens in the large than in the small republic, it will be more difficult for unworthy candidates to practice with success the vicious arts by which elections are too often carried; and the suffrages of the people being more free, will be more likely to centre in men who possess the most attractive merit and the most diffusive and established characters.

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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.

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