Federalist # 10

James Madison

Dangers of Faction

Purpose of Government: Control FactionsAdvantage of well-constructed Union: “Break and control the violence of

factions.”

Popular Government: Prone to FactionPopular government have a tendency toward this “dangerous vice”

States Are Source of the ProblemThough worthy governments American constitutions (in the states) have

not necessarily controlled this problem –the problem of factions.

Example: Massachusetts

Faction: Defined

Faction:“A number of citizens…whether…majority or minority of the whole, who

are united and actuated by some common impulse or passion or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”

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Sources of Faction

Common Sources of Faction:

LibertyReligionOpinion

Many Sources of Faction, but Property DominantBut, “the unequal distribution of property” is “the most common and

durable source of faction.”

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Sources of Faction:

Legislatures:Man can never been a fair judge of his own interests: “because his own

interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity.”

Example: Private DebtLaw concerning private debt: creditors on one side, debtors on the other.

Justice should mediate, but parties are themselves judges, and most numerous, or “most powerful faction must be expected to prevail.”

And, we cannot depend on virtuous leaders (“enlightenedstatesmen”) to “be able to adjust these clashing interests.”

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Curing Factions

Two Methods for Curing Factions:

1) Remove its causes2) Control its effects

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Curing Factions

Remove its CauseTwo ways of doing this:

1) Destroy liberty which is essential to the existence of faction.

2) Give every citizen the same opinion.

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Liberty and Faction

Liberty and Faction: Air to Fire“Liberty is to faction, what air is to fire, an aliment without which it

instantly expires.”

But, “destroying liberty to prevent faction would be a “remedy worse than the disease.”

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Liberty and Opinion

Enforce a Way of Thinking?Doing “this is impracticable, and hostile to the fundamental rights of each

individual to a arrive at his own opinion.

Interests, Property, FactionsThe fact that man is free, and diverse in abilities results in both different

opinions, interests as well as unequal property ownership. …

Solution to Factions

Need to Control Effects, Since you Cannot Limit Cause FactionConclusion: “the causes of faction cannot be removed and that relief is only

to be sought in the means of controlling its effects.”

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Solution to Factions

Controlling Types of Faction:

Minority Faction: Republican government: “which enables a majority to defeat its sinister

views by a regular vote.”

Majority Faction:Are more difficult to manage: “popular government…enables it to sacrifice

to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens.”

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Majority Factions

How to Control Majority Factions

Two approaches:

1) Prevent the development of the same feeling among the majority

2) Or, “the majority must be rendered, by their number and local situation, unable to concert and carry into effect schemes of oppression.”

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Majority Faction

Dangers of DemocracyDirect, majority rule has “no cure for the mis-chiefs of faction.” The majority could

rule unrestrained, and democracies invite the development of majoritarian passions.

Unstable Form of GovernmentAs such, “democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention,

have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property.” As a result, they have “been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”

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Majority Faction

How to Render Majority Factions Ineffective: Republic GovtRepublican Government provides “the cure for which we areseeking”:

1) Delegation represents the rest in government

2) And greater number of citizens the greater the sphere of Government.

Majority Faction

Delegation: “Refines and enlarges the public views by passing them through a medium of a

chosen body of citizens…”

But, what if a faction tries to elect a designing majority?

Solution?

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Majority Faction

Large Republics:

Benefits:1) Need to have a sufficient number, but too big a group. Large republics reduce the odds of unfit characters dominating, while small republics increase those odds.

2) Representatives will be chosen from a greater number of citizens and it will thus “be more difficult for unworthy candidates to practice with success the vicious arts by which elections are too often carried.”

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Factions

Liberty Minority Faction

Religion

Opinion

Unequal Property Majority Faction (mob rule?)

…majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse or passion or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens…

FactionsFactions

Causes Effects Solutions

- Rep Govt: Outvote min faction

- Rep Govt: Delegations

- LargeRepublic Remove Causes? “destroying liberty to prevent

faction would be a remedy worse than the disease.”