Why Does the American Form of Government Work?

Federalist Essay No. 10 

“Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice.”

“The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities…”

Madison’s argument for Federalist Essay No. 10 is how a strong union or government prevents and controls a faction, specifically the power a republic has over a democracy. As shown by the first quote, he regards the faction as the vice to a government. He later describes factions to be, a number of citizens who are united by a political message. This essentially makes various factions political parties with differing stances. The motivations of these factions cannot be removed, so relief can only be found in controlling their effects. However, too many factions can lead to a chaotic environment in the country. Madison later describes how it is a Legislation’s job to regulate the differing interests from all these factions. Destroying factions would mean that people would lose the chance to voice their opinion, so that would be worse than the threat of a faction getting chaotic in the first place. He knew that people naturally had conflicting interests, so his plan was for the Constitution to check the power of factions by balancing one another. This ensured that, “the influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States.”

Federalist Essay No. 51 

“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? 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 framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

“The remedy for this inconveniency is to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them, by different modes of election and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions and their common dependence on the society will admit. “

In Federalist Essay No. 51, Madison argues for what will eventually become our modern day “checks and balance” system among the three branches of government. He speaks how the federal republic must not only be ready to uphold the laws of our society, but be ready to uphold the laws and morals in government. It’s clear from the first quote how Madison feels about people. He understands that people are not perfect “angels”, otherwise no government would be need to be put in place, and one must understand that problems will arise in government too. Splitting the branches of government makes sure that no one can rise above and take complete control over the country. Each branch of government has a will of its own, and they will have to ability to check on the other branches. Madison understands that in positions of power like government, people may abuse it. That is why an inner structure of different branches of powers keeps each other in their “proper places”.