Why the American Government Theoretically Works

#10

“The effect of the first difference is, on the one hand, to refine and enlarge the public views…  it may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves, convened for the purpose.”

“It must be confessed that in this, as in most other cases, there is a mean, on both sides of which inconveniences will be found to lie… 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.”

The primary thesis of this essay is that in order to be able to prevent a case where majority rule becomes oppression, the type of government the Constitution details - a federal republic - solves the problems a democracy would exacerbate. The American form of government works primarily because of its construction, in the very way in which it was set up. Because citizens have their own private interests, they will elect representatives who carry out those same private interests. In the diverse dynamic of America, factions will functionally be restricted from oppressing others because representatives are elected by pools of people with vastly different private interests, which means the majority of voters are likely to not share a desire to oppress the minority. Although problems may arise at the extremities in the structure of the government e.g. if there were too many representatives at the federal level, the Constitution already accounts this because the extraneous representatives would just be placed at the state level. Basically the entire reason we have an electoral college system and it works is because otherwise we’d just be “two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch” (this was not said by Franklin).

#51

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”

“In a single republic, all the power surrendered by the people is submitted to the administration of a single government… The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.”

In this essay, Madison gives a nuanced explanation of the separation of powers, probably derived from Montesquieu’s writings, and how the Constitution dictates the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. There are many examples of this in modern day America like Garland being stalled by Congress when Obama nominated him for SCOTUS, SCOTUS being split on Obama’s immigration executive order, or Obama vetoing a bill to cut allowances for former presidents. Because of the system of checks and balances, government officials will not be able to gradually solidify power and turn the government into a dictatorship. As clear from the angel quote, people are sometimes greedy and they’re not perfect, which is why this type of system is necessary. Madison again touches on what is discussed more thoroughly in #10 - the possibility of majority rule becoming oppressive against minorities. He again expounds the idea that since the government draws all of its power from the citizenry and that the citizenry is so diverse, the rights of minorities will continue to be protected.