FREE ESSAY ON JAMES MADISON'S CONCEPTS ON FEDERALIST PAPER NO. 10

JAMES MADISON'S CONCEPTS ON FEDERALIST PAPER NO. 10

James Madison begins perhaps the most famous of the Federalist papers by stating that 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 likelihood with each other, they frequently work against
the public interests, and infringe upon the rights of others. 
In James Madison's own assumptions towards human nature, he describes them in explicit
conditions. "So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities that
where no substantial occasion presents itself the most frivolous and fanciful
distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their
most violent conflicts. But the most common and durable source of factions, has been the
various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold, and those who are without
property, have ever formed distinct interests in society" 
James Madison confers that the hidden grounds of factions are as a result spread in the
nature of man. Given the nature of man, factions are foreseeable. As long as men hold
different opinions, have different amounts of wealth, and own different amount of
property, they will continue to associate with people who are most similar to them. Both
serious and minor reasons account for the formation of factions but the most important
source of faction is the unequal distribution of property. Men of greater ability and
talent tend to possess more property than those of lesser ability, and since the first
object of government is to protect and encourage ability, it follows that the rights of
property owners must be protected. Property is divided unequally, and, in addition, there
are many different kinds of property; people have different interests depending upon the
kind of property they own. For example, the interests of landowners differ from those who
own businesses. Government must not only protect the conflicting interests of property
owners, it must, at the same time, successfully control the conflicts that result from
those who own, and those who do not own, property. 
To James 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 freedom or give every citizen the same
opinions, passions, and interests. Destroying freedom is as James Madison says worse then
the disease itself, and the second is impossible. He states, "as long as the reason of
man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be
formed. The causes of factions are therefore part of the nature of humans and people must
deal with their effects and accept their existence. 
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 insufferable individual or a
strong majority. This factious majority was which Madison felt the utmost fear for. 
If the new plan of government was adopted, Madison hoped that the men elected to office
would 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 happen. Men who are members of particular factions, or who have prejudices or evil
motives might manage, by intrigue or corruption, to win elections and then betray the
interests of the people. However, the possibility of this happening in a large country,
such as ours, is greatly reduced. The likelihood that public office will be held by
qualified men is greater in large countries because there will be more representative
chosen by a greater number of citizens. This makes it more difficult for the candidates
to deceive the people. Representative government is needed in large countries, not to
protect the people from the domination of the few, but to guard against the rule of the
crowd around. 
In large republics, factions will be numerous, but they will be weaker than in small,
direct democracies where it is easier for factions to consolidate their strength. In this
country, leaders of factions may be able to influence state governments to support
unsound economic and political policies to promote, for example, specifically delegated
to it; the states, far from being abolished, retain much of their independence. If the
framers had abolished the state governments, the opponents of the proposed government
would have a legitimate objection. 
The immediate object of the constitution was to bring to therefore construct a system
that would play the imminence of government against the greediness of people, eager that
each would ensure the negative aspects of the other. This shared negation, Madison
speculated, would result in good government and the utmost amount of individual liberty
possible.
Madison concludes that he presents thee previous arguments because he is confident that
those who will not listen to those prophets of gloom who say that the proposed government
is unworkable. For this founding father, it seems incredible that these gloomy voices
suggest abandonment of the idea of combing together in strength the states still have
common interests. Madison concludes that according to the degree of pleasure and pride we
feel in being Republicans, ought to be our zeal in cherishing the spirit and supporting
the character of Federalists. 
My view of this difference between less and more developed countries, assuming that they
are sufficiently large, is that in the less developed countries, government has not yet
evolved into a relatively impartial enforcer of property and personal rights. Like the
economy, its political institutions are also less well developed. We can expect that
people with money will try to influence political decisions no matter what kind of
society they live in. However, their success depends on the kinds of political
institutions that exist. The burden of a developing country is to look after institutions
that lead the political factions to do battle against each other, so that they will not
harm the rest of the people who are just out to make a living.
It is really hard for me personally to say that yes I agree with his document. Yes there
are certain views in which I agree with for example; yes there factions absolutely exist.
Human beings have this need to set themselves apart from others, which will always cause
conflict. The primary source of violence and anger amongst people is simple, those who
have and those who do not. These factions consist of rich, poor, middle, and poor classes
of people. He believed that the people should be able to govern themselves in some way,
but at the same time if people govern themselves than governments have and will soon be
reduced into dictatorships, such as Hitler and Stalin. Most James Madison's assumptions
to me are viewed as being pessimistic. I figure that his theory on life was that if you
assume the worst, you would already be prepared for any imminent.