Tyranny of the Majority - Federalist #51
Federalist #51 is one of Jame Madison’s most important works.
Madison uses this Paper to explain why the Constitution is written to properly protect the people from tyranny of the majority as well as tyranny of the minority.
Federalist #51
February 8, 1788
James Madison
Federalist #51 is one of James Madison’s most famous essays.
Writing just days after Massachusetts ratified the Constitution , Madison brings together his previous work on Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances to demonstrate how the it is the best republican government for the United States as it stood during the late 18th century.
He stresses that the Constitution, as written, will prevent a tyranny stemming either from the minority or the majority.
Controlling the Legislature
Madison acknowledges that separating power between branches could not be done equally.
Further, in a republican government, the legislative branch has a better opportunity to seize power than the judicial or executive branches.
To halt the legislature's ability to take control, the Constitution has two separate Houses. Additionally, both Houses were chosen through different methods.
Tyranny
James Madison spends a good deal of this Paper clarifying his ideas on tyranny of the majority.
One of the reasons he preferred to have the States involved instead of one National Government was that it created more interest groups. The more interest groups involved, the less likely one larger group would completely absolve control of the government.
Madison believed that a republican government could only exist in a large nation if there were vastly different interest groups involved. Too homogeneous a nation would, in his opinion, inevitably lead to one groups control of the whole country.
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