Federalist Paper No. 10: Factions and the Union

Factions and the Union

• Federalist number 10 discusses factions and the importance of the union as a safeguard against domestic faction and insurrection.
• The original text was published in the New York Packet on Friday, November 23rd, 1787.
• The author was Madison, writing to the people of the state of New York.
• A well-constructed union can control the violence of faction, a dangerous vice for popular governments.
• Popular governments are prone to instability, injustice, and confusion, exploited by adversaries of liberty.
• American constitutions have improved popular models but haven't eliminated the danger of faction entirely.
• Unstable governments disregard of the public good due to rival parties, and decisions made by interested majority rather than justice are widespread issues.
• Known facts suggest complaints about government instability and injustice are true, tainting public administrations.
• A faction is defined as citizens united by a common passion or interest adverse to the rights of other citizens or the community's interests, whether a majority or minority.

Curing Faction

• Two methods exist for curing the mischiefs of faction: removing causes and controlling effects.
• Removing causes involves either destroying liberty or giving every citizen the same opinions, passions, and interests.
• Destroying liberty is worse than faction, as liberty is essential to political life and nourishes faction.
• Giving every citizen the same opinions, passions, and interests is impracticable due to fallible human reason and freedom of thought.
• Human reason and self-love, along with the influence between opinions and passions, prevents uniformity of interests.
• Diversity in human faculties, which leads to different property rights, is an insurmountable obstacle to achieving uniformity making it impossible to cure factions by removing their causes.

Causes of Faction

• Government's primary objective is to protect individual faculties, including acquiring property which leads to unequal distribution.
• Unequal distribution of property leads to societal division into different interests and parties.
• Latent causes of faction are rooted in human nature and activated by the circumstances of civil society.
• The most common and durable source of factions is the unequal distribution of property.
• Modern legislation involves managing various and interfering interests which leads to party and faction involvement in government operations.
• Many legislative acts are judicial determinations where parties have vested interests, and the most powerful faction often prevails over justice.
• Tax apportionment is an example of an act requiring impartiality, yet it's susceptible to a predominant party trampling on justice.
• The causes of faction cannot be removed, so relief lies in controlling its effects.
• If a faction is a minority, the republican principle allows the majority to defeat its views through regular votes.
• If a faction is a majority, popular government allows it to sacrifice the public good and the rights of other citizens.
• To protect the public good and private rights, the goal is to prevent a majority from having the same passion or interest or to make it unable to act on oppressive schemes.

Democracy vs Republic

• A pure democracy cannot cure the mischiefs of faction, as a majority will share a common passion or interest without checks.
• Theoretical politicians have wrongly assumed that equalizing political rights would equalize possessions, opinions, and passions.
• A republic, using representation, differs from pure democracy and offers a cure for faction.
• Differences between a democracy and a republic are: government is delegated to elected citizens, and the republic includes a greater number of citizens and a larger territory.
• Delegating government refines public views through chosen citizens, but may lead to the election of fractious individuals.
• Extensive republics favor proper public interest guardians because a greater number of representatives allows for a fit choice and makes it harder for unworthy candidates to win.
• In large republics, representatives are chosen by more citizens, making it difficult for unworthy candidates to succeed.
• The federal constitution combines national and state interests, referring great interests to the national government and local interests to state legislatures.
• A republic's greater number of citizens and territory reduces factious combinations, as smaller societies have fewer parties that can easily execute oppression.
• Extending a republic's sphere incorporates more parties and interests, making it harder for a majority to carry out oppressive plans.
• A greater variety of parties makes it less likely for a majority to have a common motive to invade rights, and even if they do, it's harder to act in unison.
• A large republic has the same advantage over a small one as a republic does over a democracy in controlling faction's effects.
• The union's representation is likely to have enlightened views, superior to local prejudices.
• A larger variety of parties within the union increases security against any one party oppressing the rest.
• The variety of parties also increases obstacles against unjust majorities.
• The union's extent prevents factious leaders from spreading problems and secures national councils from religious or improper projects.
• Schemes like paper money or equal property division are less likely to pervade the whole union.
• The union's structure offers a republican solution to republican government's inherent issues.
• Being proud republicans should be matched by supporting the spirit of federalists.