The Founding Fathers And Its Impact On Society

Madison’s primary focus throughout the beginning of this paper is factions. He holds a deep disdain for them as he thinks that they solely focus on themselves, while hurting other Americans, which is evident in this quote, (“…united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the

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

James Madison wrote The Federalist No. 10 to inform the people about the problems and possible solutions for the formation of factions. Through multiple statements concerning the dangers of factions and the benefits of a republic, Madison’s major argument was in favor of the United States Constitution. Madison defined a faction as "A number of citizens, whether amounting to a minority or majority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion or interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community." (Madison p. 1) Factions can be compared to the modern day lobby group; or as groups of people with a common self-interest. These groups are only involved for

The only way to manage faction is to remove its causes and to control its effects. By removing its causes Madison believes that liberty will be destroyed, or that by giving every citizen the same opinions, passions, and interests, would be impossible because people can never all be the same. Madison wanted the United States to be a republic, a form of democracy in which power is vested in representatives, so there will be a greater number of citizens represented and we will also be able to have more control over the factions effects.

Dangers of factions mentioned by Madison in Federalist #10 and Washington's warning about the "baneful effects of the spirit of party."

The definition of a faction is a group of people forming a minority group within a larger group, to seek some goal within a political party or government. Madison describes faction differently in Federalist No.10, but in actuality the definitions have the same meaning. Madison’s definition is derived from a listing of requirements. Requirement number one indicates that factions are determined by the number of citizens. Citizens of a government share a common interest which makes them a

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 “Federalist No. 10” written by James Madison was about how factions, like the Antifederalists, in the nation would be the end of everything. He said that the only ways to get rid of it was to get rid of freedom or, since that option is worse than factions themselves, to control the factions. The only way to control these factions, he argued, is to have a republican government, like how it is stated in the Constitution. The reason he argued this was because of what happened to past civilizations, and because of the Articles. The Articles gave equal representation, but this caused factions through a minority and a

According to James Madison, there are only two methods to remove the mischiefs of a faction: the one, by removing its causes; or the other by controlling its effects. There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence as Americans fought for it during the American Revolution; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests which would be impracticable. The first option is impossible as Madison says that you can get rid of liberty, but he says that obviously “the cure would be worse than the disease.” Madison elaborates his analogy to help justify that “it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes a faction.” “Liberty is to factions what air is to fire.” Liberty feeds or sustains factions. In order for there to be a fire, there must be air and in order for a faction to grow, there must be liberty. Removing liberty to prevent factions would be as ludicrous as removing air to prevent a fire,

In addition, Madison defined that a faction is an amount of people, whether a popular or smaller, who are combined and motivated by nearly mutual compulsion of desire, or of attention, opposing to the privileges of further residents, or to the durable and collective benefits of the public. Also he explained why the Framers took a representative democracy, a republic, slightly than a clean, straight, democracy as the system of government for our new population. He defined a "pure democracy" as "a culture involving of a lesser quantity of nations, who gather and direct the rule in individual."

Take, for example, a group of people that are extremely religious, and have been taught through there church that homosexuality is wrong. If the majority of people in the whole republic were educated with these same beliefs, then the majority could criminalize homosexuality and thus become oppressive by taking away the rights of homosexuals to express their desired sexuality. This is where the ideas of Jefferson and Hamilton split on what is the correct way to deal with faction.

Federalists in Rhode Island argued against these Anti-Federalist notions of democracy by basing their opposition around the idea that the general public could not be trusted to make policy decisions. Mankind, James Madison argues in The Federalist No. 10, is too susceptible to factionism. Once divided into factions, men were “inflamed… with mutual animosity” that rendered them “much more disposed to vex and oppress each other.” Instances like Shay’s Rebellion, in which overtaxed farmers violently rose up against the government, validated arguments presented by those like Madison and Joseph Schumpeter, who held negative views of the general masses. Both rejected the beliefs of the Anti-Federalists on the basis that the public was easily swayed by “unfriendly passions” and “primitive impulses”.

Imagine 10 of your closest friends. Now mentally sort them into two categories: those that think and behave more like Puritans (John Winthrop, Judge Danforth from The Crucible), and those who think and behave more like Founding Fathers (Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin). What percentage of those 10 people are more like Puritans? Is it higher than that of the people that are more like Founding Fathers? Odds are, in our modern society (especially in liberal Southern California) you don’t have many stern, conservative, bible-thumping friends. You probably do, however, have friends that are firm believers in freedom, liberty, and rationality. These ideals were instilled in them and in our country by the values and actions of our Founding Fathers

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

Federalist paper NO.10 is Madison 's first essay discussing factions of government. Madison 's says “Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control violence of faction”. To summarize what Madison says, the constitution creates a government capable of controlling the violence and damage caused by factions.