Madison\'s Federalist Paper One of the Central

Madison's Federalist Paper

One of the central concerns of James Madison in his delineation of what constitutes a political or social faction in American politics is that the new, developing nation not become dominated by such alliances of individuals or factions. For Madison, factions are the antithesis of a fair and free government. Madison stated that in a new and potentially democratic nation such as the United States hoped to be, rather than the will of a tyrant, powerful interest groups could ban together and create factions that acted as voices that dominated the legislature. Thus rather than reasoned voices of governors, factions could become the new 'tyrants.' The only solutions to the dominance of factionalism were the legal protections and structures of governance, according to Madison's Federalist Paper 10.

Factions have their roots in human being's desires to associate in groups with common interests. However, this made it all the more important to provide the solution of republican governance where interests were represented by detached members of a legislative body, rather than individuals with a personal, biased stake in state decisions. Factions could encompass either a majority or a minority of the population. However, the only way to control factions of either sort was through a republican form of government. By electing members to the legislature, the popular factions' fervor would be tempered by being filtered through the considered mind of an elected representative. Minority factions could gain some representation if their concerns are valid from such a reasoned mind. However, because representatives were democratically elected, no minority will could completely dominate the legislative body.

Republicanism rather than pure solution was thus the only solution to the "mischief" of factions. Unlike in pure democracy, no single interest could or should dominate the political concerns of a republican nation with a legally binding and structured constitution. Republican forms of government filter singular, focused, and biased demands from voices of the various states, popular and otherwise, and could channel them into a more unified method of governance, appropriate for a nation.