Problem of Tyranny of the Majority

No matter what the government or its people try to implement to disable factions, another will always rise due to the nature of man. Destroying liberty is the most heinous crime imaginable for Madison and I agree, every citizen having their liberty is what this country was founded on and it should therefore be untouchable. Madison’s idea of giving every citizen the same ideals and interests is blatant sarcasm to illustrate how factions are unpreventable and simply part of human nature. No matter what you may do to try and prevent it, there will always be new movements and ideas that people rally behind and their freedom to do that is part of what makes America special.

A major problem that both James Madison, in Federalist papers 10 and 51, and Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracy in America, discuss is that the majority would gain too much power within the democratic self-government, and as a result the United States would be overrun with tyranny. James Madison addresses his solutions for making sure that the government will be able to control the power of the majority, posed by factions. He believes that the United States needs to a strong central government in a large republic in order to control the power of the factions. Chapters of Alexis de Tocqueville support Madison’s thinking by discussing certain ideals that Madison touched on, and elaborating on them more to provide more evidence for Madison’s

A faction by definition is a small, organized, dissenting group within a larger one, especially in politics. These groups are often wound together based off some principle they believe relates to them in some way or another. Madison thought most factions existed through unequal property distribution. Few individuals had a large majority of property while most had little property and others having none at all. Madison even said in Federalist Paper No. 10, “Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed a distinct interest in society” (Madison, 1787). This interest he was referring to was how often these two classes of people were discriminated; the discrimination being labeled as rich or poor. Madison felt through the unequal property and the weak governmental

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.

This investigation will explore the question: To what extent did The Federalist Papers influence the ratification of the Constitution? The publications, arguments, and effects of this document will be the focus of the investigation to allow for an analysis of where and in what ways The Federalist was influential during the constitutional conventions from 1787 to 1789.

Tyranny can be found in several forms, which is why we need several defenses against it. In 1787, our new country held a Constitutional Convention. Delegates from most of the states came together to fix the Articles of Confederation, our first constitution. In the end, they decided to make a whole new constitution, a written government plan, that could hold our states together and protect us from tyranny. As we had just recently freed ourselves from a situation of tyranny by one with King George III, it wasn't a scenario that we wanted to repeat itself. The job was to frame, or structure, a brand new plan that could do this. The Constitution still continues to protect us because it was a strong document with a strong plan. The Constitution

The Federalist Papers, written in New York by John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, during the years of 1787 and 1788, were a collection of eighty-five essays that were written to augment and garner support and to defend those concepts set forth in The Constitution of the United States of America (hereafter “The Constitution”), which had not yet been ratified. The Federalist Papers not only championed The Constitution, but they also explained how the new government would operate in the United States as further detailed below. It was crucial to the success of the new country that The Constitution be ratified; and Jay, Hamilton and Madison were prepared to do anything they could to see to the documents, as well as the United States, success.

In “Federalist No. 10” written by James Madison was about how factions, like the Antifederalists, in the nation would be the end of everything. He said that the only ways to get rid of it was to get rid of freedom or, since that option is worse than factions themselves, to control the factions. The only way to control these factions, he argued, is to have a republican government, like how it is stated in the Constitution. The reason he argued this was because of what happened to past civilizations, and because of the Articles. The Articles gave equal representation, but this caused factions through a minority and a

They argue that the Constitution “ stripped political control from citizen” and “ the king looked much like a king” (87). These reasons explain why many Americans were so against the Constitution, they did not want to have a dictatorship government, instead they want a form of government that will allow them to be a part of . On the other hand, the federalists support the idea of central government. The Federalists argue that if more power was given to the states, “ it is difficult to stop the majority from taking advantage of the minority” (88). Therefore, they suggest that the government “ must be organized to protect minorities from the majorities who are going pursue their own self-interest (88).

The United States Constitution is heralded as one of the most significant documents of today’s modern age, though ratification of the draft proposed at the Constitutional Convention became an object of opposition with individual challenges in each colony. The Federalist Papers, a series of essays authored by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the penname “Publius” to defend the Constitution, are historically viewed as a cornerstone for the ratification of the document. The purpose of the collection at time of writing, however, was to argue for ratification in New York State. The actual influence of the essays in the state of New York is uncertain, and this conclusion can be drawn for several reasons. The Federalist Papers were not widely published throughout the colonies, and even after publication, two-thirds of the delegates in New York opposed ratification. The amount of time taken during the New York convention to come to the decision of ratification also shows the Papers did not have a decisive effect, as few were swayed by the arguments presented by the Papers and hence, its authors, leading to the belief that yet another factor had a larger influence on ratification.

It’s possible to have tyranny in the U.S. government. People say only dictators ships and historic monarchies are tyrannic, because of having 1 person in complete power. Not so. Even if we have democratic republic, we still face problems of power from time to time. This paper will explain; How the U.S. Constitution protects it’s citizens from being oppressed due to federalism,

During the time period in which the Constitution was crafted, in 1787, there were two different types of people, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists were people who were in favor of the United States Constitution and supported its ratification; they also believed in a strong central government. Key Federalists included Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and George Washington. On the other hand, the Anti-Federalists were people who opposed the adoption of the U.S. Constitution and did not like the idea of a strong central government. Some important Anti-Federalists included John Hancock, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, and Richard Henry Lee. In the following paper I will be discussing the different views of the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists when it comes to the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, and will be analyzing specific civil liberties and discussing the pros and cons of them.

The Federalist Ten essay was published in 1787 by James Madison under the name Publius. In the Federalist Ten essay, James Madison addressed the topic of factions. Madison described factions as “a number of citizens… who are united and actuated by some common pulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community” (Federalist no. 10). Essentially meaning that factions were a group of people with a common goal or a common interest.

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

In discussing the Madisonian Dilemma, one must first ask, “How do you give government enough authority to preserve social order and communal values, but not so much that it places unfair and inappropriate limits on individual freedom of choice?” (Bond & Smith 2013, p. 111) This delicate balance between governmental rights and individual freedoms has been a source of much contention and debate. James Madison, a primary framer of the Constitution and author of 30 of the Federalist Papers, believed that the only way this balance of power could be achieved was through controlling the effects of factions through a representative government, fragmenting the power of that government and creating a system of checks and balances within, and