This essay will deal with the views of James Madison as expressed in The Federalist Papers on the problem of factions in politics. It will first examine the relationships among factions, liberty, and property. It will next discuss why factions present a problem for the establishment of a free and democratic form of government. It will go on to explain why, in MadisonÆs view, factions are the fundamental problem of politics. Finally, it will consider the ways in which Madison proposed that the problem of factions could be resolved.
In The Federalist Papers, No. 10, Madison begins by commenting that one of the greatest advantages promised by a well-constructed federal Union is its tendency to break and control the violence of factions, which he considers to be one of the greatest dangers to a free society, because of what would now be called the problem of the ôtyranny of the majority.ö After some general comments on peopleÆs concerns about this issue, he defines ôfactionö as ôa 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 communityö (p. 78). Clearly, what he means by faction is what is meant in many countries by political party. However, in the American experience, what he calls a faction is a political party in the wild state, or, perhaps better, an American political party is a domesticated faction.
Madison names only two ways to cure factionalism: eliminating its causes; or controlling its effects. In turn, he names two ways to eliminate the causes of factionalism: eliminate the liberty that allows people to form factions; or give all citizens exactly the same passions, interests, and opinions. Of these two, the first is an example of the remedy being worse than the disease, since the issue here is to protect l...