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Structure Of The Government Must Furnish The Proper Checks And Balances: Federalist 51

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On Friday, February 8, 1788, James Madison wrote “The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments: Federalist 51”. In this document, Madison discusses in regard to the Constitution the structure of government and its relation to its many parts. How each part should share a relation with the other to keep both part in its’ proper place while respecting the other branch. In the defense of the Constitution, the article states, “shall we finally resort, for maintaining in practice the necessary barrier of power among the several departments, as laid down in the Constitution” (Madison). James Madison believes that the government should be broken into parts that are partially independent. Each part of government should demonstrate the different and distinctive attributes of the governments’ powers and preservation of liberty. So that separate branches of government are mostly independent, Madison issues that no one part of government should not have power over the selecting a number from another branch of government. He says that this instead should be given to the …show more content…

What Madison is saying is there are to be systems for protecting the steady awareness of power by making it difficult to obtain that power in the first place. Humans are known to abuse power, so, power should not be given to one branch; rather, all parts work together to assure liberty and justice. Man must be within the constitutional rights of personal interests and ambitions. However, one of the best logic of order would be if the government was to be dependent on the will of the people, pronounces Madison. However, there still needs to be more

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As he explains in the paper, people are not perfect, so a government is needed. A government would not be necessary if people were perfect, but due to imperfection of people, control is needed inside and out of the government. Madison suggests that a separation of powers within the government is to keep watch on the other departments, and while this is occurring, no department has an equal amount of self-defense. Each department will have its own set of actions and will be appointed by different methods of election. Madison held that independent departments can seldom have connection to each other, while they do have a connection to the

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In the hundreds of years since the US was founded, the role of the President has changed dramatically. From the very beginning of the country to the complexities of the modern era, unexpected changes, including those that could not be predicted by the creators of our constitution, have happened. While the founders fancied a powerful executive, they also imagined that the presidency would work within the constraints set forth in the Constitution and with cooperation with the other branches of the government. This is very clear in the US Constitution as well as Federalist 51, which are the foundations of this country. To begin with, the power of executive orders has expanded the oversight of the role of the President.

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“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.

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“James Madison’s idea of the division of power between central and state governments is known as federalism.” (James Madison, Federalist Paper #51, 1788) The state governments have the power to make local decisions such as establishing schools, passing marriage and divorce laws, and to hold elections. Whereas the central government has the power to make decisions that affect the country such as, to provide an army and navy, set up post offices, and regulate trade. As James Madison said, “The different governments will each control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.”

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The congressional procedure outlined in the Constitution for impeachment and removal is an effective check on the president because it reinforces the idea of checks and balances. This can be seen in the Federalist papers, especially Federalist 51. It can also be seen in Brutus 1, where concerns about the abuse of executive power are stated. In Federalist 51, James Madison argues for the necessity of checks and balances to prevent any one branch of government from becoming too powerful. He highlights the importance of each branch being able to check on each other, making sure that liberty is reinforced.

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“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.

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In Federalist 51, he focuses on how the Constitution divides the power of the government into three branches and so no one branch would have too much power. This was done by using the checks and balances system. Madison believes that each branch should be, for the most part, independent, but, to avoid any branches from abusing its power, no branch should have too much power in choosing the members of another. He says that to follow this rule strictly, the people of the United States would choose all members of all branches, but difficulties would arise as the people may not be aware of the best qualifications for each position. So, the branches check one another and the people elect the members other than in the judicial branch, whose members are chosen by the executive branch.

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The Constitution is still relevant today because it separates the power each branch of government has in the United States. The separation of powers serves several purposes. The separation prevents concentration of power, seen as the form of tyranny, and provides each branch with weapons to fight off encroachment by the other two branches. As argued by James Madison in the Federalist Papers (No. 51), "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition."

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When the people acquiesce two or more of these powers in a single body, liberty dies soon after. Correspondingly, In Federalist No. 47, Madison declares, “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” History has repeatedly proven that the natural disposition of man is too corruptible to exercise total power righteously. It is therefore incumbent to create a system of structural and auxiliary checks on political power “to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men” (Mass. Const.). While it is one thing to talk about the separation of powers in theory, but the great question to be solved was how to maintain the separation of powers in practice.

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