James Madison Recognized as He

James Madison recognized as he helped to write the U.S. Constitution that men are imperfect and, therefore, require external restrictions and guidelines. Without those external restrictions and guidelines man's inherent nature drives them toward doing evil and cruel things. The history of man attests to this by virtue of the fact that there have been repeated wars, crime, and other such man-made atrocities. The responsibility of government, in Madison's view, was to formulate a framework that prevented these types of things from occurring or at least minimize the possibility.

At the same time, Madison was also suspicious of the power of the government and the potential that government had to be oppressive when its power was not constrained in some form. In Madison's time, this was the huge dichotomy and through the many years since it remains an acrimonious issue. The question is how to balance the propensity of man to do evil unless restrained by government against the oppressive nature of an unrestrained government.

Indeed, in an ideal society everyone acts rightly and there is no need for government but Madison and the other Founding Fathers wisely recognized that such state is not possible. Thus, a government was necessary. This struggle between the need for government and the corresponding need to control said government permeates throughout Madison's work on the U.S. Constitution. Madison believed strongly in the need for a strong central government but he did not want that central government to impinge on the individual rights of its citizens.

In drafting the Constitution, Madison provided the federal government with considerable power but at the same time he did so by setting up the federalist system through which the individual states retained authority; by placing checks and balances between the different branches of the government; and through the application of the separation of powers.

None of these concepts are specifically mentioned anywhere in the Constitution itself, yet, Madison very cleverly made sure that the Constitution was worded in such a fashion at to make sure that each of these concepts that worked to limit the power of government were operational. Each of these three elements of Madison's governmental plan served a different direct purpose but the combination served to ensure that government would provide order but would do so without growing out of control.

The design of federalism would insure that local factions would not become too powerful while still permitting local issues a proper forum. The system of checks and balances would allow each branch of the government the authority to perform its proper function but limits it authority be virtue of the fact that the other two branches had the power to override such authority. In Madison's view this system would ensure that no one branch became too powerful.

Finally, the separation of powers made it impossible for any one branch of the government to become too powerful. By dividing the power of government into three branches Madison guaranteed that power would not become too centralized. Madison's contribution to the constitutional government in the United States is immeasurable and his contribution to the writing of the Constitution would have been sufficient but his further participation.