The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments is an essay written by James Madison, published on February 6, 1788 as the 51th essay of the Federalist Papers. The Federalist No. 51 is considered one of the most important and relevant essays of the Federalist Papers. According to Madison, the purpose of the essay is to inform the audience about the importance of government structure with regard to making liberty possible. Madison considered each branch of the government should be independent from each other, but at the same time have some sort of power to keep the others from abusing their function. According to Madison, no branch should be allowed to appoint the other branches’ …show more content…
According to Madison, the members of each branch should not have any control over the others’ salaries to avoid any bias and/or future unwanted alliances. Madison’s famous quote, “if men were angels, no government would be necessary” entails that in a perfect world said regulations would not be necessary. Unfortunately, men are only human and far from perfection, which leads them to seek power and blinds them from recognizing, respecting, and protecting other people’s needs, wants, and rights. Government has not only the obligation to guide the people who elected them, but also make sure they rightfully regulate their own power. By checking each other, the branches make sure all positions operate correctly to ensure a functional, healthy government. However, as Madison declared during the essay, power cannot be realistically equally shared between the three branched of government. In a republican system, the legislative branch tends to be strongest, which led to Congress being divided into two, the House of Representatives and the Senate, in order for the legislative branch to balance …show more content…
The idea behind the separation of the federal and the state governments is once again to protect, and ensure, the liberty of the masses. By having two different governments, they can control each other, but also regulate themselves (executive, legislative, and judiciary branches). As for the protection of the minority, when the majority has an issue in common, then the rights of the minority become irrelevant. In the essay, Madison proposed two methods to avoid such tyranny. His first proposition was to create a “will” independent of society. The problem with his first method was the fact that once the power does not derive from society itself, it had no true value. The second method involved society being incredibly diverse. The second method argued society has so many groups, differences, interests, and classes that the rights of the minorities suffer not treat from the
I Agree… “The Federalist No. 84” and “The Anti-Federalist No.84”, both have their views on what should happen to our government. Whether it is to add a bill of rights or not, but I agree with the writer of “The Federalist No.84” because if the Constitution is adopted, then it will be our Bill of Rights, also based on other countries’ bill of rights then it may argue with a semblance of reason. Because I have read both sides of the discussion, I can see who is wrong and why.
James Madison’s Federalist 10 was written amid criticisms that a republican form of government had never been successful on a large scale. Madison’s argument was that a well-constructed union could control factions. He argued that in order to control factions from their causes, we would need to either give up liberty or free thought. Since we cannot infringe upon these two natural rights, we must move on to controlling the effects. A republic, Madison argues, would be able to do this because the people choose the representatives, and they choose representatives who they feel best represent their opinions.
Which means not one branch of government cannot have more power than another. “The constant aim is to divide and arrange several offices in such manner as that they may be a check on the other”. The quote is saying the constitution main aim is to keep the power separated within the branches but also so the can keep each other on check. The legislative branch can override a presidential veto. The executive branch can select judges.
So as the wise James Madison once said, “...Liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.”, we divided up the power fairly to keep a balanced triangle of power. In America, we have three branches of power, the Executive Branch, Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch. The Executive Branch is the President and Vice-President, their job is to enforce and carry out the laws made by the Legislative Branch. The Legislative Branch is the Congress, they make laws for the whole country. The Legislative Branch is made up of two sections, the House of Representatives and the Senate, each chosen by each state.
“The accumulation of all powers..in the same hands, whether of one or many (is) the very definition of tyranny.” (James Madison, Federalist Paper #47, 1788) ( Background Essay) This quote explains the reasoning for one of the framers, (B) Separation of Powers. The framers of the constitution were created to prevent tyranny and create a stronger government that would hold the nation together. Tyranny ultimately means harsh, absolute power in the hands of one individual-- like a king or dictator. The constitution guarded against tyranny in 4 ways: (A)Federalism, (B)Separation of Powers, (C)Checks & Balances, and (D)Small State-Large State.
The founding fathers were able to outline the basic government structure of America, which encompassed a system of checks and balances.
The Federalist No. 10” is a persuasive argument written by James Madison in an attempt to ratify the Constitution. He wrote a series of documents called the Federalist Papers under a pseudonym to convince others to approve of the Constitution. He says that factions are not good for America, neither is a pure democracy. Madison provides extensive arguments and remedies for the problems he is addressing. James Madison is attempting to ratify the Constitution by analyzing the way to deal with factions, comparing a republic to a democracy, and by comparing a small government to a large government.
James Madison wrote in Essay No. 48 of the Federalist Papers that “The legislative [branch] derives superiority… [i]ts constitutional powers [are] more extensive, and less susceptible to precise limits… [it] is not possible to give each [branch] an equal [number of checks on the other branches]”. Congress is not reliant on either the executive or the judicial branches for its authority or election; Congress has the ability to pass law over a president’s veto, approve members of the courts, and impeach members of either executive or judicial branches as Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution states. The federal reserve also obtains its authority from Congress, which means that the legislative can regulate the economic prosperity of the nation to a certain extent. Congress also has the ability to declare war, set taxes, and appropriate the budget for the other branches. The executive and judicial branches of government have developed far more power than the founders believed they would possess; but as Alexander Hamilton pointed out,”that power which holds the purse strings absolutely must rule” and this holds true even
James Madison wrote Federalist 51 over 200 years ago, yet its words still impact today’s government in 2016. When writing Federalist 51, Madison had two main objectives in mind; he wanted a government with a separation of powers, and he also wanted minorities to be protected. Both of his objectives have been accomplished and continue to be present in today’s American government with the latter objective being more present in today’s government even more so than in the past. To begin with, power is separated in today’s government, preventing a single person or group from having absolute power since, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” according to John Dalberg-Acton. The American government is composed of three branches which power is separated amongst.
Madison’s essay reflects the fear many had of a tyrannical government and the desire to ensure that the country didn’t revert back to that which it had just escaped from. He notes the necessity to prevent any one faction or group from gaining too much power and oppressing those in the minority. The separation of powers was set in place to ensure that this could not happen. Even if one group decides they want something, the other two have the equal authority to prevent it should it not represent the country as a whole.
“The different governments will each control each other at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” (Doc A, Madison,James, Federalist Paper 51, 1788). Each part of the government had there own jobs to do, for example the central government has the power to regulate trade, conduct foreign relations, provide an army and navy, while the state government set up local governments, holds elections,
“The accumulation of all powers… in the same hands, whether one, a few, or many… may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny. ”-James Madison. Fifty-five delegates, from the thirteen states, met in Philadelphia in May of 1787 to discuss and revise the Articles of Confederation. The chief executive and the representatives worked to create a frame for what is now our Constitution. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways; Federalism that creates a State and Federal government, Separation of Powers that gives equal power to the three branches, Checks and Balances that create balance in the three branches by checking each other and being checked and the Small States vs the Big States ensures an equal voice for all states no matter what their size.
In the Federalist Paper number 51, Madison writes to the people of New York to explain that it is necessary for a separation of powers between the departments of the government. Madison, with the help of Hamilton, wrote the Federalist Papers to explain sections of the Constitution. In Federalist Paper number 51, Madison explains that the government does not have a strong structure on the outside, but creating a firm structure within the government could be a solution. The firmer structure would be the separation of powers. In order for the people to get a better idea and make a more accurate judgement about the separation of powers, Madison shares observations and puts them into simpler terms.
In Federalist 51, he focuses on how the Constitution divides the power of the government into three branches and so no one branch would have too much power. This was done by using the checks and balances system. Madison believes that each branch should be, for the most part, independent, but, to avoid any branches from abusing its power, no branch should have too much power in choosing the members of another. He says that to follow this rule strictly, the people of the United States would choose all members of all branches, but difficulties would arise as the people may not be aware of the best qualifications for each position. So, the branches check one another and the people elect the members other than in the judicial branch, whose members are chosen by the executive branch.
The Constitution of the United States was formed 223 years ago. Since 1787, a lot has changed. We grew as a country, technology advanced, and we elected 43 different presidents. One of witch, being the first African-American President in history. Due to its age, some may argue that the Constitution is irrelevant to today’s problems.