The Dangers of Factions Explained in James Madison's The Federalist No. 10

"Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than it's tendency to break and control the violence of fraction" ( ) The federalist paper #10 was written by James Madison and published on November 22, 1787. In this paper Madison discusses how to gaurd against groups of citizens or factions that have interest that conflict with the rights of the public and community and are ulimatly useing their conections with others to get what they want.

The main argument that Madison discussed was that a strong central government would be able to control the violence of factions. As long as there is humanity, there would be factions. Destroying the causes of factions would be highly impractical and unwise. Instead Madison felt that it would be better to control the effects that these factions could potentially cause. He also stated that there were stark differences between a Direct Democracy and a Republic and their control of factions. A Direct Democracy would be controlled by the will of the largest faction, and thus the weaker minorities will have close to no say in their government. To combat against this, Madison felt that, “The Federal Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular to the State legislatures” (Madison). The Federalists main argument behind their style of government was that everyone’s voice would be heard and would not be drowned out by the voice of the majority, something that only a Republic could

James Madison first talks about the number one problem in the government: factions. He thought factions had very dangerous behaviors especially in popular government. They cause the governments to be unstable which contributes to “unsteadiness and injustice”. This document goes on to explain what factions are; a faction is a group of passionate people with the same interest. Madison believed these people were only interested in themselves and ignored the community. Factions are formed most likely because of the unequal distribution of property. Usually the government job was to protect and regulate anything that had to do with property. This hurt people.

The primary source is Federalist paper No. 10, which is a the first of James Madison’s contributions to the series of essays known as the Federalist Papers. This essay is a highly regarded paper among the collection. The Federalist No. 10 is merely rhetoric used to rationalize the benefits of a new system of government, explain how the new union will be constructed and most crucial to the essay, sway public opinion to support the ratification of the new constitution. This particular primary source is imperative to understanding the complexity of the United States government at the time of its birth as well as now. Madison makes an argument that the expansion of the federal government is necessary to protect liberty against the excess of democracy. The document reveals the advantages of a Republic and serves as an explanation as to why the U.S. espouses a Republican form of government and the Constitution.

"...to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country." (Madison 4) Larger republics give more space to individuals to give them room to express their interests. In turn the people will favor their state and be supportive in what their state does, i.e. pass laws or taxation. By having many individuals, representatives are used to give the people a voice to speak with government. This will the people a chance to express their thoughts more effectively to government. Compared to smaller republic, there are a fewer individuals with the want to express their opinions and contribute to their state. According the Madison, smaller republics have a flaw of having too many leaders and not enough followers. Which results in leaders fighting over power and control. Due to the fact that larger republics have several "factions", in causes to make an interesting

James Madison, Jr. was one of the most influential leaders in the ratification effort of the U.S. Constitution. Known to many as the “Father of the Constitution”, Madison was instrumental in the writing of the Federalist Papers, an 85 page collection of newspaper articles and essays encouraging the ratification of the Constitution. These papers helped explain how Madison intended the Constitution to defend against tyranny. Madison describes how factions can ruin governments, concluding “There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by removing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects” (Madison, Federalist 10). He also claims tyranny can be avoided with a republic, with a governmental structure of both national

For a charismatic person to come in a say he wants to protect the poor then gets their votes then goes on to only work for the poor leaving the wealthy people out. The other idea is the larger republic, the larger the fraction becomes, the larger the fraction the less the faction is going to be able to be unified. therefore it is It's very hard to get a faction to unify inside and some of them have different views which can put an end to how tyranny happens. Without a large republic not only are you gonna have the problem of the tyranny of the majority that you're not gonna have a unified country if we become factionalized to the point where it just kinda elect your own person who represent your own views that we are going to go to civil war and break up as a nation by having a large republic and having all these voices muted in there factions by the process of election. There is always gonna be factions and in order to protect the minority in final statements Madison says you need to have a large republic without it Corruption and tyranny will

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

According to James Madison the problem was the factions. He suggests that we keep the problem in hand by removing its cause and also by controlling its effects. I would be smart if he did not remove its cause because it may destroy liberty and give everyone the same opinion. If he controlled the effects then he will have two different types of factions a minority and a majority. So he might want to control the cause.The first problem with the factions was that they were very violent. “ its tendency to break and control the violence of faction.” This quote explains that the factions are becoming out of control and may need to be handled by James Madison. “ The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have,

Madison believed that a republic could protect liberties better than a democracy. Madison explains that if it’s a minority faction, voting can fix this, so a democracy can work here, but if it’s a majority faction, a large republic can fix this. Firstly, Madison states that a direct democracy cannot control the conflict of factions because the largest faction dominates and there would be no solution to protect the smaller factions against the actions of the overpowering majority faction. Therefore, a direct democracy wouldn’t be able to protect personal security or the rights of property. Secondly, Madison argues that a large on the other hand would establish a government where representatives are selected to rule the people in order to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. Madison feared that a direct democracy was bad because he thought the people weren’t informed enough which could lead to corruption. This is why Madison yearned for men with intelligence, passion and patriotism towards their country so they won’t make folly decisions, but he explains that the inverse may yet occur. Men of factious tempers, prejudice, and of sinister designs may as well betray the interest of the people through corruption or intrigue. He argues a contradiction by explaining that the possibility of this occurring in a

The new system of government outlined in the Constitution had allotted provisions so the number of representatives in the legislative body would not be “proportion to that of the constituents,” as suggested in the New Jersey Plan. Madison advocated this system of government because it would guard against the “cabals of a few” and the “confusion of a multitude.” The republic would be large enough so that the power of the legislation wouldn’t be placed in the hands of a few (oligarchy), but not large enough that Congress wouldn’t be able to pass any laws because there are so many opinions.

In order to correct “factious spirits that have tainted our public administrations”(Madison, 72), the government must control the effects of factions. He argues, “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... will be more likely to centre in men who possess the most attractive merit and the most diffusive and established characters (Madison, 77).” With this statement by creating an extended republic with more representatives, the tyranny of a majority could be avoided with the addition of more qualified, democratically-elected representatives. As a result, Madison felt that creating an extended republic with more representatives with more people voting would quell the effects of

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.

Federalist papers were a series of essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison and were publish with the pen name “Publius”. They were first written to urge the citizens of New York City to support ratification of the proposed United States Constitution. This paper will analyze the problem of tyranny of the majority in both society and the government by using Madison’s Federalist Papers No.10 and 51. It will also discuss how the republican government and separation of powers provide remedies.

The second way in which a pure democracy differs from a republic is that a republic is much better-suited to be extended over, as Madison puts it, a “greater sphere of country”. This second difference between the two forms of government is significant in ensuring the effectiveness of a large republic over a small republic. Madison holds that there are two options in curing the effects of factions. Factions can be cured by either removing their causes or by controlling their effects. Removing the causes of factions is neither practical nor wise, as there are two ways to remove the causes of factions: destroy the liberty that fuels the formation of factions, or force the same interests and opinions on every citizen. Liberty cannot