Summary & Analysis of Federalist #10 Summary:
Madison begins perhaps the most famous of the Federalist papers by stating that one of the strongest arguments in favor of the Constitution is the fact that it establishes a government capable of controlling the violence and damage caused by factions. Madison defines that factions are groups of people who gather together to protect and promote their special economic interests and political opinions. Although these factions are at odds with each other, they frequently work against the public interests, and infringe upon the rights of others. Both supporters and opponents of the plan are concerned with the political instability produced by rival factions. The state governments have
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To Madison, there are only two ways to control a faction: one, to remove its causes and the second to control its effects. The first is impossible. There are only two ways to remove the causes of a faction: destroy liberty or give every citizen the same opinions, passions, and interests. Destroying liberty is a "cure worse then the disease itself," and the second is impracticable. The causes of factions are thus part of the nature of man and we must deal with their effects and accept their existence. The government created by the Constitution controls the damage caused by such factions. The framers established a representative form of government, a government in which the many elect the few who govern. Pure or direct democracies (countries in which all the citizens participate directly in making the laws) cannot possibly control factious conflicts. This is
because the strongest and largest faction dominates, and there is no way to protect weak factions against the actions of an obnoxious individual or a strong majority. Direct democracies cannot effectively protect personal and property rights and have always been characterized by conflict. If the new plan of government is adopted, Madison hopes that the men elected to office will be wise and good men the best of America. Theoretically, those who govern should be the least likely to sacrifice the public good to temporary condition, but the opposite might
I cannot begin to tell you how horrible and difficult I found this essay to be. Besides the fact that we don’t even talk like that anymore, the people writing this stuff are the elite of high society so they have a high education level. They are talking about government and that’s about all I know or understand. So I have to go find other papers that will explain what the hell this guy is talking about. And finally what I understood was that Madison says that when people get together in an organized group it can cause trouble for the government. The fundamental main point of federalist paper #10 is that factions are very damaging to the government, the constitution is established to provide damage control. I now know that I belong to the Anti-federalist
No matter what the government or its people try to implement to disable factions, another will always rise due to the nature of man. Destroying liberty is the most heinous crime imaginable for Madison and I agree, every citizen having their liberty is what this country was founded on and it should therefore be untouchable. Madison’s idea of giving every citizen the same ideals and interests is blatant sarcasm to illustrate how factions are unpreventable and simply part of human nature. No matter what you may do to try and prevent it, there will always be new movements and ideas that people rally behind and their freedom to do that is part of what makes America special.
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
However, Madison explained that there are two methods of removing the causes of faction. First, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence. “Liberty is to faction, what air is to fire, an ailment, without which it instantly expires,” Madison stated. What Madison was trying to say is that liberty and factions go hand in hand. Liberty promotes a faction to grow and get more powerful. In this way, it is better to lessen liberty among individuals to provide for what is best for the overall society. If people are not free to form and express their points of view, then factions could never take hold.
Madison thinks that the majorities are going to take over and go over the rights of others and he says that participatory democracy is not good.
Why do people need to worry about a majority faction? A: People have to worry about the majority factions because a larger territory will be more likely to have a large number of interests.
In the presence of a powerful fraction, there is nothing to protect the minority factions from being overpowered; that a true direct democracy would be incapable of maintaining the protection of liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness. A large republic government will impart power to elected representatives, making the power of factions to affect the vote is greatly decreased. Madison believes that this type of government should be put in the new constitution.
One person might say that anarchy would be the only way to have complete and utter freedom, while others would go as far as to believe a controlled communist government is the best route to achieving liberation. Factions (a group of people who agree on certain topics) are inevitable, due to the nature of man. As long as men hold different opinions, have different amounts of wealth, and own different amount of property, they will continue to fraternize with people who are most similar to them. In Federalist #10, James Madison summed up factions
Although James Madison despised factions as explained in Federalist Paper No. 10, Madison believed factions were an essential part of government, that needed to be revised through careful governmental intervention. Madison was careful to ensure his vision for the country 's future would protect the given right to liberty; therefore he found in the Constitution multiple outlets for these factions to dissolve. However, the government itself was corrupt so the three branches had to be separated to prevent tyranny and be successful in stopping the dangerous factions. Therefore, in Federalist Papers No. 10 and No. 51, Madison would outline his goals for creating a more cohesive country.
The Federalist Papers were 85 essays that were published in 1787 and 1788. They were anonymous and always signed by “Publius.” Publius was actually 3 men, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. They wrote the papers to convince the people of New York to vote to ratify the Constitution. These essays were published in newspapers throughout the state of New York. Federalist 10 was written by James Madison and was titled The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (continued). This essay was a continuation of Federalist 9. Federalists like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton thought that if the states continued to maintain complete control, each state would become its own nation, which would leave the U.S. bankrupt. They believe that a strong central government would have the ability to stop this from occurring. Factions were James Madison’s worst fear. Madison believed that factions were what were going to keep states divided and more likely to turn to individual nations. James Madison’s opinions are correct.
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
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
One of the biggest sources that factions come from are from the distribution of land. There are two main ones, those with lots and land and those with little land. Even though these groups conflict, the government is obliged to guard the interests of each group. Madison stated two ways to control factions, which were to remove its causes and controlling its effect. Madison says next that he worries about corruption of members of the new government, but says it is less likely because representative will be chosen by a large population. He also discusses the differences between a republic and a democracy, along with that the main goal of the Constitution is to make all 13 states secure from threats and invasion.
The Framer’s notion of a republic, or democratic republic form of government, rested on the necessity to limit the formation and success of factions. Yet, as Dahl argued, the irony of Madison’s aversions to factions is that, not long after the ratification of the
Aristotle defines three causes of factional conflict. First, is a state of mind that leads someone to form a faction. Second, is what can be gained or lost in forming a faction. Third, are the causes of political disputes leading to factions (1302a:20). In democracies, factional conflict only arise between the poor majority and the few rich. In oligarchies, two sorts of factional conflicts arise, on against each other and the other against the people. In addition, there are eleven potential causes of constitutional change which can