"Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency".
In this particular quote from his Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison argues for the importance of liberty in a government. So important in fact that he says it can not be taken away even to take away the power and effects of a faction, which he says causes disagreement, disunity, and the stop of progress. He also compares liberty to air, which is "essential to animal life", hence further stressing its importance. The American form of government works because it's grants everyone that liberty that allows them to freely express ideas, beliefs, thoughts, etc. This idea of liberty was greatly stressed even from the beginnings of America: their struggle for independence and freedom from the British. The idea of liberty is so deeply engraved in the mind of the American people that their government might not even function properly without it. Thus, liberty is certainly essential and helps make our government work. But would our government work better without factions and if so, I wonder" how can we rid of factions without taking away liberty?
"This policy of supplying, by opposite and rival interests, the defect of better motives, might be traced through the whole system of human affairs, private as well as public. We see it particularly displayed in all the subordinate distributions of power, where the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other -- that the private interest of every individual may be a sentinel over the public rights. These inventions of prudence cannot be less requisite in the distribution of the supreme powers of the State".
In this passage from The Federalist Paper No. 51, Madison states that a system of check and balances is necessary for a government to function. One of a government's aims is to divide itself, which also essentially divides its power, so that not one of the offices that constitute the government will have too much power. This is to prevent the reason why the Americans held a revolution in the first place. Without the system of checks and balances, America's government might have become just like Britain's, which would have negated the entire purpose of the revolution. The system of checks and balances, therefore, is also necessary and essential to the clockwork of our government.
I agree that Madison was emphasizing the importance of checks and balances in The Federalist Paper No. 51. By saying that "the constant aim is to divide...", Madison is also pointing out the importance of the separation of powers. He is obviously borrowing a lot of Montesquieu's ideas.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the points made and along with the idea of separation of powers through checks and balances which Madison mentioned, "In order to lay a due foundation for that separate and distinct exercise of the different powers of government, which to a certain extent is admitted on all hands to be essential to the preservation of liberty...", he wanted to use the this idea(c & b) to have a government that can control and restrain itself so that it can also govern the people. Madison also wanted a solid government which is stated in Federalist 51 that, "In a single republic, all the power surrendered by the people is submitted to the administration of a single government" he didn't want to have a single department to rule over the others because he predicted that conflicts could easily rise, thus affecting the people.
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