FEDERALIST PAPERS #51 by James Madison

FEDERALIST PAPERS #51 by James Madison

By: Katherine Pena

Assignment due: 2/27

"But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. The provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions."

 

In the federalist papers james madison tells us how there should be a certain structure in all branches of the government that brings about a checks and balances system which provides no greater power of one branch over the other. The constitution itself provides a stable separation of powers from legislative,executive and judicial branches, while doing so still focuses on the people's liberty and choice to choose its representatives of government giving them the “legitimate authority”. ‘If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary”.By nature man is ambitious and wants power, therefore constitutional limits must be set in order to make it hard for such branches to abuse power. I think the point madison was most urgently trying to make is that by separation of power no oppression or totalitarianism will occur, thus always keeping in mind the needs and liberty which are given to the people with the added bonus security .

I chose this passage in particular because it gave me a sense of contradiction, while the separation of power within the branches brings about stability and structure so that no one power takes over it seems as if mankind's nature of ambition and power keeps things stagnant. Yes there is separation but while one party has these ambitions and need of power for their political gains they cannot overstep their boundaries due to the checks and balance the constitutional rights present and same goes for the next and next and so on, so moving forward with actual promise of progression seems to be a never ending game of tug of war. In a way it gives the people a sense of falseness because significant change never comes. We can not only see this within our country but in other countries where separation branches and the needs of mankind (greed and power)  don't necessarily or work as well or as effectively as it does in America.