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GOVT 2301. Federalist #10 and the Republicanism. In the previous section we looked over the nature of Constitutions and analyzed the broad design of the United States and Texas Constitutions, as well as the alleged failures of the Articles of Confederation. .
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GOVT 2301 Federalist #10 and the Republicanism
In the previous section we looked over the nature of Constitutions and analyzed the broad design of the United States and Texas Constitutions, as well as the alleged failures of the Articles of Confederation.
This week we begin a series of lectures designed to dig deeper into specific design features within each document, primarily the United States Constitution.
We will look separately at these four principles:RepublicanismSeparated PowersIndividual LibertyFederalism
This week: RepublicanismIn other words: Indirect Democracyor Representative Democracy
For a reminder: What is a Republic Again?A republic is a type of government where the citizens choose the leaders of their country and the people (or at least a part of its people)have an impact on its government.-Wikipedia
More specifically, it means that the preferences of the general population are filtered through representative institutions.Try to memorize the “filter” as an analogy. In brief, a republic attempts to filter out short-term, unstable, radical ideas in order to ensure that the actions of government reflect long term, stable concerns.
As we will see, the principle concern by the framers of the Constitution was that powerful, permanent majorities would be able to control all aspects of governing power, become tyrannical, and disregard the rights of the majority.In short: a republic is argued to be better able to prevent the tyranny of the majority.
In a republic, people do not rule directly, as in the Athenian democracy, rather they do so though elected representatives.Read Pericles on Athenian Democracy here.
We will consider this topic by reading through Federalist #10 which argues that the Constitution successfully limit the dangers posed by factions motivated by personal, narrow interests, not the overall interests of the nation. It does so by filtering their preferences through a legislative system that will break apart majority factions.
Please note that I expect you read through Federalist #10 and be prepared to answer a handful of questions regarding its text.TextWikipediaGradeSaverSparkNotes
A faction, as the term was used by Madison, is similar to what we would call today interest (or advocacy) groups.As we will see, the Constitution is designed in part to impact how groups form in the nation and how capable those groups are to creating instability.
Consequently, this allows us to take an early look at interest groups, what they are, how they form, and how they are – or are not – effective.
At root, this section concerns a conflict that exists between the concept of popular sovereignty and democracy.
While we know from our discussion of natural rights that a government must rest on the people, history tells us that the people can provide an unstable basis for government.
Classical authors argued that democracies inevitably turned chaotic and out the chaos emerged a tyranny that would keep the peace. Read criticism of the Athenian democracy here. The Framers of the Constitution were aware of these arguments.
The democratic system was believed to be the reason Greece was defeated in the Peloponnesian War.
A democratic assembly was also responsible for the execution of Socrates.
They were also aware that being wealthy property owners, they were in a minority. A democratic majority could take their property, which they saw as a violation of their unalienable rights.
Recall the tension between majority rule and minority rights.In a democracy the nature of minority rights can be defined by the majority.
The real problem, as they saw it, lied in human nature. As we will see later, Madison thought we far more likely to “vex and oppress” each other than to cooperate. This would be fatal in a direct democracy, but manageable in an indirect democracy.
A tyrannical system can suppress divisions in society because they are powerful and ruthless enough to eradicate them.Stalin dealt with opposition groups by killing them.
Democracies, which naturally require a degree of individual freedom, allow these divisions to take center stage and lead to conflict. Utter chaos – civil wars – can lead some to conclude that a tyrannical leader is preferable to random violence.
This was Thomas Hobbes conclusion in The Leviathan, written during the British Civil Wars.
The word “democracy” therefore wasn’t a compliment. Think about how people use the term “socialism” today, it was similar.
The goal of the U.S. Constitution is to maintain popular rule, to ensure that it did not crumble into tyranny. The question was how.
Madison would argue that the answer to these problems was in designing a “well-constructed union.”
This would involve creating a republic with strong independent but accountable legislative institutions that rest between the people and the law.
So while it is true that the U.S. is a democracy, the democratic design is such that the electorate has a no capacity to instantaneously change policy.
While the Preamble begins with “We the People,” much of the remainder of the U.S. Constitution protects government from the people.
Before we continue, let’s recall what “democracy” means.It means, in Greek, rule of the people, and as is practiced today has three main components. We introduced these previously.
Obviously we can question whether the U.S. qualified as a democracy at that point given restrictions on suffrage.We discuss these in the section on elections. For now it is important to know that restricted suffrage was a deliberate choice by the framers.
The framers of the Constitution were worried about the excesses of democracy, and sought instead to limit the direct impact of the population, while still retaining the basic democratic framework.
“The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy.” – Elbridge Gerry He was referring to the problems the nations was allegedly suffering from under the Articles of Confederation.
From the Constitutional Convention: Mr. HAMILTON. This question has already been considered in several points of view. We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is neither found in despotism nor the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.
The people who attended the Constitutional Convention believed that the policies proposed by the democratic legislatures in the states were harmful to the future stability of the union.
The legislatures were, for example, debasing currency to allow for easier payments of debt even though this policy, in their opinion, harmed long term economic development.
James Madison would mention these specifically in the latter parts of Federalist #10.Paper MoneyThe Abolition of DebtsRedistribution of Property
In a republic, a variety of institutions lay between the population and the formulation, implementation and adjudication of the law. Collectively these are supposed to limit efforts to harm the minority.
On the national level this includes: A Bicameral CongressA Singular ExecutiveAn Appointed Judiciary
These are established in the first three articles of the U.S. Constitution ,and they are structured in such a way to be independent of each other.This introduces a topic we will cover more thoroughly in the next section.
Each institution is put in office through a separate process, which insulates them in different ways from the national electorateHouse – the peopleSenate – the statesPresident – the electoral collegeCourts - appointment
And each institution has a different term length, which also insulates it from the national electorate:House – 2 yearsSenate – 6 yearsPresident – 4 yearsCourts - Lifetime
The longer the term, the greater the insulation. (Think about this like the length of a dog’s leash.)The Anti-Federalists wanted the shortest terms possible – yearly if possible.
