After reading The Federalist #10 I learned a few things about what that document is saying. James Madison talks about many different things all throughout this document mentioning many different things about the government and how societies work. This is majorly about how Unions and Factions of people have corrupted the views of the public and have obscured the objectives of the government itself. Unions and Factions can be very destructive in the United States government structure for a few different reasons and that is explained throughout this document. It discusses the structures of Republics and Democracies and the actual effects Unions have on people and governments.
“The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished” (James Madison) This explains a major problems that Unions/Factions represent in society. Their influence alone makes them quite the opposing force, their sheer numbers make them the majority which allows them to sway many people to their side in arguments. People typically agree to the side with a larger majority, this usually does not matter whether or not that side is correct it just means that majority rules. They can control who becomes elected. However with every disease there is a cure.
There are many ways to cure this ‘disease’ “two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by removing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects.” (James Madison) The first way means that once a faction begins getting ideas or motives for their actions that motive must be eliminated or controlled. If they are allowed to run rampant with these ideas, they will spread and cause havoc across any nation. They have to be closely monitored so things do not escalate out of control. The other way of controlling them is to control the after effects of a faction as efficiently as possible. If they were to sway many people using ideals a person must find a logical way to counter those ideals and sway them back so that the factions do not end up with supporters. Once with supporters they begin affecting the government, but things must be put in place to protect it from situations like this. This is why the United States is a Democratic Republic.
Democratic Republics make it harder for the Factions to take control. There are differences between Democracies and Republics. “The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens, and greater sphere of country, over which the latter may be extended.” (James Madison) This shows the major differences between those two structures of government. The first being how votes work. A Republican votes on every decision that the government makes, while a Democracy elections people to make their decisions for them. Secondly Democracies must vote in people to make decisions so the more the people in a country would mean the more people that would have to be elected in to make these decisions, while in a Republic everyone would simply vote on the decision itself. Despite this the actual leaders of a country determine what goes on within it.
The actual power of elected leaders only depend on their land they are in control of. “The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States.” (James Madison) This means that no matter how influential the man is they are only in control of a certain area and cannot go beyond those boundaries. These Factious leaders can determine certain thing within their states but they dare not go beyond that since they know they will be competing against other Factions.
This is what I understood once I read The Federalist #10 by James Madison. It explained a lot about the dangers of Unions/Factions that reside in countries.
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