American Politics

Factions: Help or Hindrance James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, aided by John Jay, were responsible for writing eighty-five anonymous essays for the New York Journal in 1787 and 1788. These articles were known as The Federalist Papers, and they were intended to persuade people into ratifying the proposed Constitution. In The Federalist Paper Number 10, Madison responded to critics who had argued that the United States was too large, and had too many groups, or "factions," to be ruled democratically by a single government.

Madison acknowledged the importance of factions in the opening paragraph, stating that, "Among the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction" (Rossiter, 1961). In prescribing how to rule and control the effects of factions, Madison detailed their relationships with other important concepts, such as liberty and property, and asserted his belief that factions were both the underlying basis of, and the fundamental problem in, politics.

Madison's definition of a faction was, "a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community" (Rossiter, 1961). He acknowledged the existence of many factions in the country and stated that they occur as an inevitable by-product of liberty.

In order to remove factions from society, Madison believed that it would be necessary to also remove liberty but that, "it could not be a 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" (Rossiter, 1961).

Therefore, despite his belief that they were often divisive and oppressive, Madison accepted that factions had to be accommodated within the role of government, and be given sufficient room to express their views and to exert influence within the political process. Among the causes, Madison argued that, "the most common and durable source of factions has been the unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society" (Rossiter, 1961).

He considered these divisions to be responsible for social and political problems, such as discrimination, class conflict, and even violence. Madison argued that these causes of factions could not be removed, therefore an important role of government is to ensure effective control and regulation of the effects.

This does not involve the use of 'pure' democracy, which would result in the majority putting down minorities, but by means of the republican Constitution, which allows the different interests to negotiate their differences in order to reach a solution in which the majority would rule, but which would also show due care and regard to minorities. Even although Madison believed that factions pose a problem to the institution of a free and democratic form of government, he was also aware that they have a positive role to play.

He emphasized that it meant, sometimes, "the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties," and that voters, politicians, and even governments could.