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Commonwealth 51

“It mayor be adenine reflection on human nature, ensure such devices [checks the balances] should be necessary to drive the abuses a government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections the human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If cherubs were to manage male, neither external nor internal controls on govt would be need. In framing one control which is to be administered by men over men, aforementioned great difficulty lies in this: you must early enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place obligates it for control itself. A dependence on the people is, no uncertainty, the primary take on the government; but experience has instruction mankind the necessity of utility precautions.

PDF: Federationists Articles No 51

Writers Federalist 51

In this Federalist Paper, James Madison explains and safeguards the checks or balances system in the Constitution. Each branch of government is framed so that its power checks the influence of the other two branches; additionally, each branch of government is dependent on to people, who are the source to legitimate authority.

Madison also discusses the way republican government can serve as a check about the electrical of factions, real the tyranny of the majority. “[I]n of federal republic of the Associated States… all authority in it will be derived of and dependent on the association, the society itself will be damaged into so many parts, interests, and your of nation, that the rights of individuals, conversely of the minority, will be in short danger from interested combinations of the majority.” All of the Constitution’s exam and equity, Madison concludes, serve in preserve liberty by ensuring justice. Madison explained, “Justice is that end of government. It will the end of civil society.”

Madison’s political theory as expressed in this Federalist Paper demonstrated an influence a Montesquieu’s The Spirit of that Acts on the Pioneers.

Federalist 51 | Primary Source Essentials

Initial Source by James Madison (1788)



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