Federalist Articles James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay were the authors of the federalist papers. James Madison was the principle author for article No 10 and article No 51. The immediate purpose for publishing these papers were to obtain support for the ratification of the Constitution, they wanted a diverse republic to prevent faction but with equality to maintain unity among the states. Madison addresses that a large faction will provide better representatives, since the cause of faction has been the unequal distribution of property. Those who have property versus those who don’t, have ever had different interest in society. He saw direct democracy as a danger to individual rights and addressed for a representative democracy to protect individual liberty from majority rule. In federalist No 10 Madison discusses to guard against factions, or groups of citizens, how the passion and interest of one group could mean a danger to the government. In article No 51 the purpose is for four aspects: Layered representation which is the people that are elected directly or indirectly to represent other people, Separation of powers are the three branches that make, and enforce the law; judicial, executive, and legislative branches, Checks and balancing is the ability of each branch to check the powers of the others so the power is balance in all three branches, and Federalism which is the existence of two governments, state and federal and both governments have dominance over different policies and functions. According to Madison article No 51 is, “to form a more correct judgment of the principles and structure of the government planned by the constitutional convention”. I think Madison did not want the citizens to have power to decide, the fear of their decisions made him create a representative democracy for the people. The lasting significance of the political document for understanding the American Political System is to see how faction could damage democracy, citizens are given the right to speak, and vote evenly, but to the government this was a threat because they saw it as something that could destroy their government, so creating a large faction like a republic could balance out and give “equality”, but really it would benefit the government more than the people. Madison believes that factions will always exist and the way to balance the effect is to have multiple factions, republic and democratic, and no person should have control over other groups. No faction can become large enough to take over all other factions in an established democracy.
The main arguments Madison discuses about are the two ways to limit the damage caused by faction, to remove cause of action, to control its affect, or to eliminate faction by eliminating liberty, and to create a society similar in opinions and interests. Madison emphasizes that the strategy prevents everyone from sharing the same opinion, and the damage caused by faction can be eliminated. I think to consider to remove liberty is a bit extreme to this country, It would be impossible because liberty is essential to our political life, and liberty is what American fought for in the American Revolution. Madison seems to take actions to the extreme, as if the people’s voice should have no right, even though his intentions seem to be for the good of the public in whole and not individually. Then he also argues the problem that comes from majority factions, because the purpose for popular sovereignty should prevent minority factions from gaining power. For this he offers to prevent the “existence of the same passion or interest in a majority at the same time”. So having a minority and a majority democracy has its risks, I think both have a motive to exist, minority can influence majority and vice versa which could be considered to be affecting the equality of our democracy. Madison determines that a small democracy cannot avoid the danger that a majority faction represent because small size means that unwanted passion can influence the decisions of the majority of the people, which can then pass through the democratic government without difficulty. Madison also argues in favor of a large republic against a small republic for the choice of “fit characters”, so certain people can represent everyone’s voice.
I agree with the aspect of a republic party rather than a democratic republic, not all the people are fit to make a powerful decisions to change our democracy. We are selfish and self-absorbed human beings, but then I think of those who are chosen to speak for us, and aren’t they as selfish as well? I agree as much as I disagree, I think there is no equality and many citizens are treated as incompetent. We the citizens have rights under state and national government, and I believe that it is important to have a representative because we all live in different places and states should have rules different from other states. I also believe that everyone voice should be heard. It is difficult to come into an agreement within the people, therefore we now have representatives to advocate for us. The federalist paper No 10 and No 51 were written for the advocating of the ratification of the constitution.