Federalist 10

A detailed Summary of Federalist 10

In 1787 Madison wrote in the tenth essay of The Federalist Papers that, "By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether mounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest. . ." (30). This became a huge problem during this time because many competing groups were conflicting over a variety of issues. Faction is caused because it is in the nature of man to have differing opinions. These opinions ranged from religion, government, and leaders. The biggest and worst faction occurred between the rich and the poor. The reason that factions are so dangerous is because they usually have the ability and the power to manipulate the results in their own special interests rather then for the public good. One of the promises of a well-constructed Union is to break and control the violence of Faction. There were only two methods of curing this problem; they included either removing its causes; or the other by controlling its effects.

The first method of removing the causes took away the freedom of

Liberty. However, this method couldn't work. As Madison said, "Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it i

The "new science" of faction is one that wasn't cured, however it was controlled. The best way to control these factions is to create more. Many minorities is better then a majority. A Republic is also better then a Democracy because it is representative of a large population rather then a small group of leaders. This paves the way for more opinions and views and a better system of compromising them.

Madison realized that the effects of factions could not be prevented, but he believed that they could be controlled by the checks and balances built into the Constitution. By creating the checks and balances factions were easier to keep under control. The biggest problems were the majority factions. The minority factions could usually be controlled by force. The government felt that it would be better to have many minorities rather then a large majority. To do this the government had to refine and enlarge the public views. The fewer parties and interests, the more frequently a majority will be found within the same party. Within a majority there are usually a greater variety of interests, this makes it less probable that the majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens. While people in the majority have different motives it is more difficult for all who feel the same to act together in unison. This makes the majority less of a threat. A Large Commercial Republic is preferred because the larger a society, the greater t

Some common words found in the essay are:
Madison Liberty, Federalist Papers, Commercial Republic, John Rocker, Democracies Republic, Republic Democracy, , removing causes, checks balances, method removing, method removing causes, rich poor, minorities majority,

Approximate Word count = 997
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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