Why does America's form of government work?

"No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity.  Yet the parties are, and must be, themselves the judges; and the most numerous party, or, in other words, the most powerful faction must be expected to prevail."

This quote from Federal #10 is a reason Madison believes having a Republican government is more reasonable than a democracy.  He considers the fact that many people who have an interest in their country would be least likely to act on their self-interests.  Having a group of people come to a consensus would be more helpful than if the individuals decided to make a decision.  However, people who claim to have an interest could be biased or persuaded into making a conclusion that could hurt the people.  Madison thinks that the number of people making the choice should be limited because people could get confused with the various perspectives.  Citizens should choose the representatives because each representative needs to be able to speak for the people.   People who are the most persuasive and are able to do well in the community are the best applicants.   However, another conflict arose when the founding fathers debated on the number of representatives each state could have.  Madison decided that each state’s number of representatives would be decided by how much land each state held.  The smaller the state, the fewer representatives they would have because they would not hold as diverse thoughts as a larger state would if that makes sense. 


In a single republic, all the power surrendered by the people is submitted to the administration of a single government; and the usurpations are guarded against by a division of the government into distinct and separate departments. In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.

This quote from The Federalist #51 shows that Madison wanted a strong and fair national government. However, he also wanted to make sure that individuals had freedoms and was able to prevent the government from abusing its power. He believed the founders could do this by having separate branches of government, which become known as the executive, the legislative and the judicial. The legislative branch is composed of two houses of Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The most important duty of the legislative branch is to make laws, which are written, discussed and voted on.  Each year, there are 100 senators, two from each state.  However, there are 435 representatives in the House of Representatives because the number of representatives each state receives is based on its population. In the Executive Branch, the president, the head of the branch, approves and carries out laws, which are passed by the legislative branch.  He negotiates treaties, and acts as head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces.  The last branch, the Judicial Branch, oversees the court system, explaining the meaning of the Constitution and laws passed by Congress.