Federalist #10 & 51

In Federalist Essay #10, James Madison writes about different political parties could be very bad for the government. He says that a democratic republic is the best fit for government. "From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction." In this, he means that if one large group of people all share the same beliefs, their opinions will overpower the minorities in the democracy. He says,"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."He says that if one faction is trying to vote something by that is bad, the majority of people that are good will not allow it to happen.

In Federalist Essay #51, James Madison writes about how the new government should be set up. Like Britain, he says that each branch should have a series of checks and balances on the other so that no one branch can overpower the other two to make decisions. Madison says that, "We see it particularly displayed in all the subordinate distributions of power, where the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other -- that the private interest of every individual may be a sentinel over the public rights." Each one of the branches of government can cancel out the power of a branch as others can to it. Because of these checks and balances, all of the branches are neutral, and no one branch is any more important or powerful than another. He also says," The remedy for [not having branches with equal powers] is to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them, by different modes of election and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions and their common dependence on the society will admit." He means to have multiple legislative branches that have nothing to do with one another to be able to evenly distribute the power throughout the legislative branch.