A Faction As Described By James Madison

Federalist 10

A faction as described by James Madison, is the total number of the citizens whether minority or majority, and are united by various interests that are adverse to citizen rights or a permanent interest of a given community. Factions is historically known to be breaking or destroying the republic, and one of the serious sources of faction is the diversity opinion which comes as a result of politics in the political life resulting to dispute of a fundamental issues that includes the religion and the regime supposed to be preferred. The other source of faction is passion. Even though, there seemed to be problems with republic government due to fragmentation, large faction can be avoided however there are still some tiny ones which could get together to form coalition.

If factional becomes intensive, the government tends to suffer a lot from disunity and when it becomes severe, ruptures in some organizations that impede effectiveness might be noticed. To avoid such disunity and perception Publius have tried to outline various options for overcoming faction. Firstly, to avoid harm to the republics, faction should be conducted secretly and with a minimal scrutiny for the republics. However, this act sometimes tends to lead to unethical behavior making the warfare within the factions to lead to frauds and fraudulent conduct.

According to Madison, faction can be overcome by removing its causes or controlling its effects to the republics. This can be done by destroying the liberty, however in most case, liberty is usually very essential to the political life. Another option is by creating a homogeneous society that has interests which is impracticable. In Madisons’ summary, he concludes that faction can only be limited when the government controls its effects to the republics.

Publius ultimate to the solution of faction in United States involves passing the bill of Rights which will act as the solution to the problem of faction while emphasizing on the powers separations. Publius also extends the sphere along with the pluralism of Republic to prevent the majority factions while forcing the process of decision making to slow down

Federalist 51

The separation of powers or checks and balances are regulations which tend to allow one branch in limiting another branch, for example the Congress power that alters the jurisdiction of federal courts as drafted by the United States Constitution. It involves three branches of government which includes the legislative, executive and the judiciary, each has a constitution that defines power and its function. However, one government does not need to interfere with the way other branches exercise their assigned power. Separations of powers sometimes divide the ability of making decisions to many people. One cannot abuse power because no person has much power than the other. For instance there are three branches of government and in a company; the separation of power might come from the owner who is also the General Manager. Another good example of power separation is taking a situation where two people are sent to the bank to access a safe within the bank. In this case one person will have the powers for opening the safe while the other person will have the powers of taking what is necessary. Publius believes that separation of powers is essential in the protection of liberty. This is because the general government tends to protect the rights of people but fails to take the potential for the role to be polluted by the party disciplines.