Sunday, July 13, 2014

According to "The Federalist No 10," which one poses a greater danger to the republic government: the minority or the majority? Why?

In "The Federalist Papers: No 10," James Madison states that the government of the American Republic is susceptible to influence not from "the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party," but from the majority, whose voice is louder and who may be "overbearing."
Madison allows that these people may often have genuine cause for complaint, but believes that anything constituting a "faction"—that is, either a majority or a minority, but a group united by "some common impulse" which would have a negative effect on others' rights—poses a threat to the republic.Part of the reason these groups cause such threat is because it is very difficult to eradicate them. Eradicating them would mean abolishing liberty, which is contrary to the interest of the republic's government, or eradicating differences of opinions among people, which is obviously impossible.
In terms of these factions, then: if a faction is "less than a majority," a regular vote can be utilized to defeat its "sinister views." However, where the "majority is included in a faction," it is more difficult for these views to be suppressed through the regular channels of government. Madison's concentration here, then, is to "secure the public good and private rights against the danger of such a faction"—that is, a faction with a majority—while simultaneously maintaining the rights for which the American people had fought.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed10.asp

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