Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion
Direction from James Madison

Direction from James Madison

Last updated on: January 14, 2021 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

0 Comments

Direction from James Madison 2021-01-10T16:59:22-05:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In trying to think through the challenges to our democratic system that I have been blogging about this week, I re-read some of the Federalist Papers, which were written by several of our nation’s founders–James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay–who themselves were thinking through how our Constitution would work.

Central to their argument is Federalist No. 10 by Madison. I was struck by how well it anticipated and addressed issues and problems we are having to deal with today: polarization, conflicting ideologies, political involvement of religion, diversity. And his insights also have application to smaller questions, such as whether a president can pardon himself.

Here are some excerpts. To get not just isolated insights but an actual connected argument, you need to read the whole document, which is only 3000 words, about eight pages. It’s all online at the link.

From James Madison, Federalist 10: [my bolds and commentary]

The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good. . . .The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government. . . .

Note just how realistic Madison is. He recognizes that the political life of the nation will be torn by conflicting ideas, competing interests, strong emotions, and politicians eager to exploit these conflicts to gain power. The purpose of government, he says, is not to unify everyone in an idealized utopia but to manage them so that one faction is not able to impose itself on the others, so that citizens have the liberty to pursue whatever factions they want to as individuals and the government can go forward in its “ordinary operations.”

Note how Madison, in a completely different context, addresses our current question of whether a president can pardon himself:

No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time; yet what are many of the most important acts of legislation, but so many judicial determinations, not indeed concerning the rights of single persons, but concerning the rights of large bodies of citizens? And what are the different classes of legislators but advocates and parties to the causes which they determine? Is a law proposed concerning private debts? It is a question to which the creditors are parties on one side and the debtors on the other. Justice ought to hold the balance between them. Yet the parties are, and must be, themselves the judges; and the most numerous party, or, in other words, the most powerful faction must be expected to prevail.

Conservatives are supposed to be “originalists” in their approach to the Constitution; that is, they believe that it should be interpreted according to the meaning of words and the intentions of the original authors. Well, Madison was one of the original authors of said Constitution. If “no man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause,” that would include President Trump granting a pardon to himself.

The issue here, of course, is not that. Madison is acknowledging that the legislators who might be thought to adjudicate the “factions” will themselves be part of factions. Therefore, he will argue, we need a system that will limit what the legislators can do

Factions are inevitable. So are factious politicians. So we need to control the effects of the disagreements:

It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to the public good. Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. . . .

The inference to which we are brought is, that the CAUSES of faction cannot be removed, and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its EFFECTS. . . .

If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote. . . .When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens. To secure the public good and private rights against the danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our inquiries are directed.

Some political thinkers of his time argued that democracies and republics will only work in small countries, but Madison maintains that such systems work better in large nations, because having more factions among more people spread out across a bigger area will mean that it will be harder for one faction to win over the others. (Thus, our information technology and social media, which has been said to shrink the country by making everyone accessible to everyone else despite their physical distance from each other, has been intensifying our factions and making them more formidable.)

So Madison recommends not a pure democracy but a representative republic. He thinks filtering the issues through representatives will provide distance for the “passions” and enable wise reflections.

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.

The effect of the first difference is, on the one hand, to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations.

OK, I think he is being a little naive here, in assume the officials whom the people elect will put first “the true interest of their country” because of their “patriotism and love of justice.” Our politicians often instigate the trouble. But still, the system can tamp down the bad effects of the factionalism:

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. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source.

Diversity of ideas is not a weakness but a strength, so that one idea does not become dominant and that freedom can be preserved. One “religious sect” cannot take over the country because there is a such a large “variety of sects” that would make that impossible, which is why religious liberty is so important.

Madison goes on to develop the concept of the balance of powers, which is a major feature of our Constitutional framework. Notice, though, that Madison is not simply proposing “checks and balances” to put limits on the federal government. He wants to do that in order to “check and balance” the factions that will otherwise tear the country apart and result in one of those factions tyrannizing the others.

We citizens need to check and balance ourselves!

Illustration: James Madison [the fourth president], from W Kennedy, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

representative republics

Previous Post

January 13, 2021

What Can Go Wrong in a Democracy

Next Post

January 15, 2021 Deplatforming

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Well said Steve!"

Joe

Netflix Narnia Update

"I am pretty sure that Lewis would agree that the Aslan/Jesus connection is not allegory. ..."

Steve Bauer

Netflix Narnia Update

"That's a good point about Netflix execs concern about the movie being an indicator of ..."

Steve Bauer

Netflix Narnia Update

"This whole question of going with chronological order is reflected in deciding how to read, ..."

Steve Bauer

Netflix Narnia Update

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Hosanna" mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Save us Rejoice Praise Hurry

Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith

See All Titles »