The Federalist 10 Summary

“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.”

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

Madison’s usage of the word “most” seems to the reader that he is assuming more than 50%, however, those popular social movements consist of people of all economic standing on both sides. Therefore, how can the unequal distribution of property be the cause of factions. Without factions (according to Madison) society would have to be involved in a communist state to guarantee the equal distribution of property so as not to cause factions to develop. However, society can’t enter into a state of an authoritarian regime because it needs to maintain liberty, a theme Madison believes is unreplaceable. Instead of trying to remove factions by mandating a communist egalitarian world view (which some people understand when they read Madison's work, not what Madison himself said), society should embrace factions as an example of political and intellectual freedom working beautifully. It demonstrates that dissenting views are able to properly lobby government officials, through either being elected or organizing protests. There is validity to the claim that factions cause unnecessary bureaucracy, however, the constitution of the United States formed a government that intentionally worked this way, it was expected factions would rise up, that’s why there is so many checks and balances. The checks and balance system is the effective way of handling factions, not removing liberty, and certainly not forming a communist egalitarian state. Factions are not only necessary to maintaining a capitalist society, but they are also important in guaranteeing that dissenting views and opinions are allowed to be heard. They serve a role and purpose in the echo

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

In “Federalist 10”, James Madison explains and protects the checks and balances system in the Constitution of the United States. He says how each branch of our government is outlined so that its power checks the powers of the two other branches. He explains this by stating that there are factions, a majority faction and a minority faction. These factions are unified by a common belief or interest, and aim to protect the rights or interests of their community. If the power of the majority went unchecked, then the power they received could then be used to oppress the unpopular, or minority, views. The majority could also use their new power to take away the rights given to the minority.

In his Federalist Paper 10, Madison refers to the word “factions” numerous times. A “faction” is a small, organized, dissenting group within a larger one in politics. Madison believes factions cause problems among other different factions because they the majority always wins. If Madison were alive today, he would see both political parties as factions. He would also view different unions and organizations as factions. In general, Madison would see any group which shares a common interest and works together to promote their community as a faction.

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."

Madison makes three major claims in Federalist #10. The three claims Madison makes arguing for a larger Republic are that corruption and bad behavior can be better controlled, a large republic will unify the country, and a large republic will protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. The title of #10 is “The Union as a safeguard against domestic faction and insurrection.” As the title suggests, factions are the main issue in the reading. “Madison defines factions as “A number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” Factions still exist in the country today. Madison believes that the biggest faction is the poor. A large republic would make factions larger. When factions become larger, it is harder for them to become unified because of so many other interests. So essentially, Madison believes that by chopping the large factions up, it would make it more difficult for the faction to unite, and therefore the minority will still be heard. Madison also touches on the issue of corruption. He claims that the larger the republic becomes the chance of corruption declines.

Despite dysfunction proliferating the workings of its institutions, the American political system continues to function as originally designed: to limit government control beyond the basic protection of liberty. At face value, the dysfunction of the American political system is guilelessly attributed to party polarization. Yet, political faction, according to James Madison, is not necessarily a bad thing. Instead, he argues in The Federalist that it is an essential and effective feature of a properly structured government. Bessette and Pitney, Jr. support the idea that “strong partisanship…can be healthy for deliberation and democracy” (296). In Federalist 51, Madison suggests that because of human nature’s shortcomings coupled with the

Moreover, Madison understood that factions might arise with the purpose of controlling the government. For that reason, Madison’s solution to a strong centralized government, was to attack its causes and control the effects of factions. In order to accomplish this, Madison suggested a large republic to control the effects a faction. Furthermore, Madison argued that in a large republic, faction would not be successful because there would be too many factions to control the government. Evidently, by having a large republic the evils of factions in a strong central government can be controlled.

In Federalist 10, James Madison addressed what he viewed as one of the most credible threats to the well-being of society: factions. Madison defined a faction as “[A] number of citizens… who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or… the interests of the community” (10). Madison believed factions are detrimental to society because while advancing their own interests, they infringe upon the rights of others. He also explained that the causes of faction are inherent to mankind, with inequality and differentiating interests being two of the largest causes. Madison believed the form of government best suited to prevent factions is a large republic, with representatives acting for so many people that they would hurt their own constituents if they acted in contrary to the public good.

Factions are thereby a real problem to the constitution of

In discussing the problems surrounding the issue of factionalism in American society, James Madison concluded in Federalist #10, "The inference to which we are brought is that the causes of cannot be removed and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects." (Federalist Papers 1999, 75) In many ways, the nature of American politics has revolved around this question since our country's birth. What is the relationship between parties and government? Should the party serve as an intermediary between the populace and government, and how should a government respond to disparate ideas espoused by the factions inherent to a free society. This paper will discuss the political evolution that has revolved around this

According to James Madison, what constitutes a faction is the different opinions and beliefs of a certain group of people have. In the quote “Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets,” is referring that the main distinction between the two is retention of property that is owned so therefore he feels that it should be dealt with in two ways, by either fixing the root of the problem or to control the effects. Of those two ways he indicated that you either had to take away the freedom from the factions (“liberty is to faction what air is to fire”) or to have everyone think correspondingly. Both ideas were insufficient because you can’t take away the freedom from the people and you

The formation of Factions is a totally natural and to be expected. Different people want different things. The two biggest examples of factions are the left and right sides of the political spectrum. On one end, the left, you have the liberal- people open to new and different ideas, believe in the importance of helping each other, and believe that government needs to be involved in social issues in order to provide equality. On the other end, the right, you have the conservative- people who are determined to uphold established ways of thinking, believe in the importance of self reliance, and believe that government should stay out of social issues in order to protect freedom. What happens when these two large factions do not agree? Absolutely nothing, as demonstrated by today’s government. Madison was worried about this problem and asserted that it was necessary for a national government consisting of a single party to exist in order to counteract the polarizing and paralyzing effects of factions among the states. As they act as a further separation of power, factions do have their benefits. However, having the federal government become a more party-neutral environment could greatly help to avoid some of the problems we see today; the federal government could keep the states and their factions in check and make sure things actually get