Why the US form of government works

“The effect of the first difference is, on the one hand, to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations. Under such a regulation, it may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves, convened for the purpose.”

This quote is an example of why our form of government is so successful. James Madison is advocating that with the power in the hands of the people, we have the ability to elect a group of citizens who will represent our ‘public view’ and make it a reality. The wisdom of this selected group of people allows them to define what is best for our country, and help make that vision come true. They also have “patriotism and love of justice” which also contributes to their ability to make decisions that will benefit our country as a whole. Madison also says that “...it may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves.” In other words, if the elected group of people come up with ideas to help the country, the chance of them being accepted by the public will be much higher than if a random faction of the population were to declare something. The reason being that the chosen body of citizens were elected by the people, and therefore, more people trust them and their decisions. This system allows for the maximum benefit of our country and allows us to make more progress.

“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

In this passage, Madison is explaining that our system also works because we trust our government in several ways. The first being that we “enable to the government to control the governed” (us, the people). Next we “oblige it to control itself.” So, not only do we allow the government to govern us as a population, we also trust that it will control itself through any means necessary. If the people did not depend on the government, the government would not be able to “control” us, but since we do depend on them to protect us and our rights, our dependence naturally has control over the government. Lastly, Madison says that “experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.” Throughout history, corrupt governments have led to the people revolting and causing violence/bloodshed. However, over the last few centuries we have learned that in order to prevent that, we must take precautions. In our system of government we have the principle of checks and balances, which prevents one branch of government from taking complete control of the others and acting on their own will.