Republicanism, Representation, and Consent - Essay Example

Lecturer: Topic: The Federalist Papers are comprised of a number of articles and essays that are eighty five in total that were drafted by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay and which sought to recommend the approval of the constitution of the United States. Seventy seven of these were printed consecutively in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet in the period that was between October 1787 and August the following year whereafter the compilation that came out of this and eight more were published in two volumes and consequently called The Federalist or as some people referred to it, The New constitution. The main purpose that the authors of these papers had when they were writing them was passing the constitution but in the first paper they clearly set the debate in wider political terms. In The Federalist number 10 James Madison concurs that the both the majority and the minority citizens are have united by common impulse of passion or interests and this may be a reason to adverse the rights of others but that this problem that is brought about by the existence of these divisions can be solved by using two methods. The first method would entail getting rid of the root cause of the problem that is going on and the second will involve putting the effects that come out it under control. The methods that could be used in getting rid of the root cause would include terminating the freedom that makes the problem to exist or by making sure that all the citizens have the same opinions, same passions and consequently same interests. But getting rid of the root cause of the problem may not be the best idea that should be adopted since the methods that are used to do this make the situation worse than actually having that problem. The liberty that is given to the citizens is what fuels the factions that arise between them but it is important to remember that the same liberty is what the political environment thrives on and this makes it a good and bad factor at the same time. The second solution is unworkable since as long as the citizens will have the liberty at their disposal, they will not stop exercising it and this liberty will be the beginning of forming perceptions and developing passions and interests that will eventually develop into faculties that will be characterize diversity in the society. The diversity in the abilities that the citizens will have and from where the rights of property arise from is also becomes a hindrance to the equality of the interests. The government is then tasked with the important obligation of making sure that these faculties are secure and it makes this task its first objective. It can be seen that the unseen origins of factions are a part of the nature that man possesses and they are exhibited everywhere in the activities that man takes part in and the situations that are prevailing in the civil society. The will to have opinions that are based on the religion that one prefers, the government, and many other areas in the life of the citizens as well as being attached to new leaders that are looking for different types of power have been used as tools that divide the people into parties and consequently made them turn against each other which makes them forget to work on the issues that will be mutually beneficial to them. This situation arises very easily such that the human being will take any opportunity that he gets to seek to be different from the other people and disregarding what their interests and preference may be which eventually has the effect of exciting the various conflicts that they may possess and this have the capacity to turn to be violent. Unequal distribution of property has always been the source of factions that are formed in the society since those the ones that hold and the ones that do hold have been forced to form and develop interests that are unique to their situations and therefore differ from each other. These are the interests that must be controlled and they therefore form the main agenda that the modern law making is tasked with accomplishing. In this Federalist paper, James Madison clearly states that no person is therefore permitted to be the deciding factor in a situation that he has interests in since he would most obviously favor the interests that he has and make a judgment that would favor him and these interests which means accordingly one cannot be a judge and a party that is seeking judgments simultaneously. Looking at the whole paper it is clear that the liberty and freedom that the citizens have is the main cause of the faculties and differences that arise and may even cause situations that may turn ugly. The government is then tasked with controlling this situation but at the same time it cannot take away the liberty that the people rightfully have and deserve. The only way out is to create a situation where the people will have to look up to the government to solve it and this is where the statement that Madison made about the government being able to govern the people before it can govern itself becomes a reality (Schultz, 42). The Federalist paper number 39 comes to terms with how difficult it can be to get rid of the passions and the ambitions that the population may possess and this necessitated the division of power and consequently permitted ambition to neutralize ambition. This separation made the expansion of power to be limited and also included a vertical distribution that entailed federalism where the federal government was given certain powers and the other powers were kept for the states and the people. This republic was then viewed as a government that would get all its power from the people and that the people that will hold the office will hold it for a designated period of time as long as they had good behavior. This then goes on to show that the people could not be given all the power to govern themselves. That way the government would have no control over these people and in the end it would also have no control over itself. The people needed to be governed through the separation of powers that was created before the government can decide how best it would govern itself (Elazar, 46). In the Federalist paper number 45, James Madison states that the final authority is the preserve of the people and that when and if by any chance the federal government becomes too powerful and oversteps their mandate and authority, the it should be checked by the people by developing plans that will start a resistance and even result in them using force so that this can be reversed (Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and Goldman, 353). It is important to remember that to avoid this, the government should be able to make sure that it acts within the confines that it is supposed to but at the same time ensure that the people are well treated and the fears are taken care of so that they do not go against it, in essence it must be able to govern the people before it can be able to govern itself. In the Federalist number 51 which was written by James Madison in 1788 and talks about how the structure of the government is supposed to provide the checks and balances that are supposed to exist between the different departments, he talks about two considerations that mainly relevant and apply to the federal system of the American government and they placed the system in an interesting position. He argued that in a republic, all the power that the people bore and were willing to surrender was supposed to be given to the administration of a single government and that the usurpations that will arise from this should not be allowed to be divided into other distinct and separate departments other than the one that existed. He states that in America that power that the people have surrendered is supposed to be divided between the two governments that are distinct and afterwards this parts that have been given to each of the governments can be sub divided among the smaller departments that exist within the two distinct governments. This will be a sure way of making sure that the people and their rights are protected in more than one way and the two different governments will check each other’s functioning at the same time they will be in a position to control themselves. He developed a second point that mainly stated that it was vital in the republic that the society should be protected from situations that they will be oppressed by the people that rule them and also having the one part of the society protected against any injustice that might arise from the other part of the society. He went ahead to state that the different people in the society are driven by different interests and that if the people that have the same interest become united as a result of the interest that they share, then the people that will not be sharing this interest may feel threatened. There were two solutions to this kind of situation and the first one involved creating a will that the community will be able to identify with that will not depend on the interest that the majority will have and the second one involved giving the society enough separate descriptions of citizens so that will be able to make connections between interests that in the long run there will not be a majority that will be determined by only one interest. The first solution is applied by many governments that have a hereditary authority or one that appoints itself but it can be dangerous since if the power does not involve the society, then there will be the views that favor the minority that the majority will not be comfortable with that may make them take action. The second method is the one that would be used in the United States and will have all the authority that the society was surrendering but at the same time will be reliant on the same society that will be separated into many diverse units that will depend on the interests and the classes of citizens and that the rights that the popular are supposed to have will not be taken away from the by the combination of the popular and their own interests. Further into the article, it states that if the situation in the society is one where the faction that is stronger can be able to unite so that they harass the ones that are weaker, it would be a recipe for anarchy where the individual that will not be strong cannot be defended against the stronger one and this should be averted by applying the second solution that will prompt the stronger individual to submit to the government that will be able to secure the interest that both these parties hold. This arguments and statements that are in the Federalists article number 51 clearly make the statement “you must first enable the government to control the governed, and then oblige it to control itself” that came from James Madison become clearer in perspective. The only way that the government can be able to function properly in most of the situations is when it has the people that it is supposed to govern in control and making them know that it is committed to serving the whole society no matter the interest that they have (Schmidt, Shelley, and Bardes, 383). References Elazar, Daniel. “Republicanism, Representation, and Consent: Views of the Founding Era.” New Brunswick, N.J: Transaction Books, 1979. Print. Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, John Jay, and Lawrence Goldman. “The Federalist Papers.” Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print. Schmidt, Steffen , Shelley Mack, and Barbara, Bardes. “American Government and Politics Today.” Princeton, N.J: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, 2008. Print. Schultz, David. “Evicted!: Property Rights and Eminent Domain in America.” Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger, 2010. Print. Read More