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Central Government vs Loose Confederation

overnment but expressing their own identity. Madison spoke to the issue of factions in Federalist 10 and gives a clear definition of faction:

By a faction, I understand 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 interest of the community (Miroff, Seidelman, and Swanstrom 18).

Madison and the other Framers feared the influence of factions on the body politic, understandable given that he defined a faction as promoting something adverse to the rights of others. He states that there are two ways of dealing with the issue, the first being to remove the causes of faction and the other being to control its effects. Clearly, he does not believe it possible to eliminate factions themselves, and indeed it is clear that any free society will produce numerous factions, groupings of like-minded citizens who wish to promote their particular interests. This is in fact one of the essentials of a democratic system.

Madison goes on to note that there are two ways to remove the causes of faction: 1) destroy the liberty which is essential to its existence (and he says that this cure would be worse than the disease); and 2) give to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests (also an impracticable solution as well as an un

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Central Government vs Loose Confederation. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 15:45, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1704655.html