Federalist 10 Summary

In Federalist 10 by James Madison, he addresses key issues like factions and democracy, all while focusing on the usefulness of the Constitution and the necessity of a strong central government, to defend his Federalist ideology. Personally, I agree with the foundation of his arguments, especially on the topic of forms of government, as well as the role of representation in our government.

“You make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other. Besides other impediments, it may be remarked that, where there is a consciousness of unjust or dishonorable purposes, communication is always checked by distrust in proportion to the number whose concurrence is necessary.”

A major problem that both James Madison, in Federalist papers 10 and 51, and Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracy in America, discuss is that the majority would gain too much power within the democratic self-government, and as a result the United States would be overrun with tyranny. James Madison addresses his solutions for making sure that the government will be able to control the power of the majority, posed by factions. He believes that the United States needs to a strong central government in a large republic in order to control the power of the factions. Chapters of Alexis de Tocqueville support Madison’s thinking by discussing certain ideals that Madison touched on, and elaborating on them more to provide more evidence for Madison’s

In “Federalist #10”, Madison describes the dangerous effects that factions can have on Republican government and on its people. Madison defines a faction as a group of citizens who unite under a shared cause, and work against other groups in order to achieve their means. Their means of achieving their goals may achieve adverse effects upon the rights of other citizens. Put in more modern terms, a faction could be reasonably compared to a special-interest group. The sort of faction that most endangers the liberty inherent in United States society are factions that contain a majority of the whole. The weakness of a popular government is its susceptibility to the effects of factions. However, a well-constructed Union provides numerous

Lastly, it is impossible for any certain branch to gain too much power because of something called “checks and balances”. With checks and balances, each branch has the power to cancel another out and keep its power balanced. “In framing a government, which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.” Here, James Madison is stating that first, the issue is to convince the people that they need laws for the country to run properly and smoothly, and second is to explain to the people that the educated elite will not receive too much power. This will be achieved by giving each branch the power to overrule one another. For example, the legislative branch can impeach the president and Supreme Court, the president vetoes laws and nominates the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court declares laws and acts unconstitutional. This way, not one single branch will be the main source of government.

     In order to control the effects of a faction, Madison said that the government needed to have a checks and balance system. By doing this, factions are prevented from getting too powerful. This is the reason why the Americans clearly put a checks and balance system in the constitution. In the constitution, these rights are guaranteed (Ziegler 216-220).

Liberty. This word means many things to many people. There is no way to distinctly define the term without leaving someone's crucial point of view out of the equation.

The Federalist Papers Ten and Fifty-One were the ideal papers written by Madison to support th¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬e ratification of the Constitution. Out of all the federalist papers, these are two of the most important federalist papers. So what were the federalist papers? They were 85 essays written by three gentlemen: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay that explained particular provisions of the Constitution in detail. Alexander Hamilton goes on to be the first treasury secretary, James Madison goes on to be the fourth president and John Jay the first chief justice in US history. So what was the purpose of these papers? Well, they were written to gain support for the US Constitution, especially in New York. While many people might see it as inevitable, the Constitution was a revolutionary step. Because of the revolutionary nature of the new constitution, arguments were necessary to rationalize it. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York were the states critical to the success or failure of the Constitution. Of these four states, New York by far was the state where the success of the constitution was in the most doubt. Quickly, Alexander Hamilton decided that a massive propaganda campaign was necessary in New York, more than in any other state. So with the help of James Madison and John Jay, he published several essays in different newspapers in New York. There is really little

Alexander Hamilton wrote the majority of the Federalist Papers, a collection of essays intended to explain and defend the Constitution. In Federalist No. 78, Hamilton explains the powers of the courts. He viewed the courts as the least likely of all of the branches of government to impose upon or threaten the liberties and properties of Americans. Hamilton begins his argument by mentioning that federal judges serve for life. He explains that the reason for this lifelong term is to help the judges avoid pressures from other political powers or the popular opinion. Therefore, judges would also be the least likely to let their political agendas get in the way of Americans’ freedom and possessions.

With the concept of majority tyranny in mind, the founder’s, including Madison, divided the power of the government into three different branches. The need

According to James Madison, “ 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 be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny΅ (Document B). The quote is explaining that all powers in government should be divided into three, In the Constitution, the three branches are legislative, executive, and judicial. Each branch has its own power and responsibilities. This quote is important because that everyone has a job no one is slacking taking too much power so they divided equally into different parts so everyone has a place in their

The Federalist Papers Number 10 is written by James Madison and explains the necessity of the Constitution to protect our country from factions. A faction is “a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent aggregate interests of the community (Publius, 72).” Publius states that there are two ways to get rid of factions. The first way to eliminate a faction is to take the Liberty away from all of the people in the faction. The other way to cure a faction is to give everyone the same opinion. Both of this solutions are not possible

In the Federalist 10, it is mostly about the constitution. It was written by James Madison, who oversaw it. The main purpose of this article is faction. In politics, faction is people that group themselves. Madison said that in the republic. Madison says that the number one common characteristic is the largest people. The democracy would be possible because you couldn’t create a majority group of people that would have a lot in common. However now, democracy become too big in this scale. People don’t have much in common. That was the anti-federalist concerned. And now Madison came up by saying that just because there are larger group of people that doesn’t mean they are right with what they should say. Majorities are somewhat dangerous; they sometimes do foolish stuff. Also, they somewhat not to be trusted. Now, the fact that the new constitution republic is covering. Democracy is

The reading on Federalist 16 is very quite confusing, but has to do with war and the states not doing the correct things. At this time of period war was a big thing. The complying states are choosing to help the union and choosing to have war with the non- complying states. This could create a civil war.

Constitution saw checks and balances as essential for the security of liberty under the Constitution. They believed that by balancing the powers of the three governmental branches, the efforts in human nature toward tyranny could be checked and restrained. In the mixed government we contend for, the ministers, at least of the executive power, are responsible for every instance of the exercise of it; and if they dispose of a single commission by corruption, they are responsible to a house of representatives, who may, by impeachment, make them responsible before a senate, where they may be accused, tried, condemned, and punished, by independent judges. With checks and balances, each of the three branches of government can limit the powers of the others. This way, no one branch is too powerful. Each branch “checks” the powers of the other branches to make sure that the power is balanced between them. The powers of one branch can be challenged by another branch. As one of the basic doctrines in the U.S. Constitution, separation of powers and a system of checks and balances contribute to a stable political situation in the United