Why does the American Government Work?

Why does the American Government Work?

In the Federalist Essay #10, Madison argues that a republic form of government will be much stronger than a pure democracy.  However, before we get into that, we need to set the stage first.

In every single form of governments, there will always be factions, who are, as Madison defines it, people “united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community”. This occurs because it is in human nature for humans to form opinions amongst themselves and take sides whenever a public or private issue or concern surfaces. These opinions will always exist because it is almost impossible to destroy thoughts and ideas that are constantly being made inside of our brain, but if it were to be possible, the process of trying to take away the freedom of thinking-freely to ourselves and maybe the others will only cause another thought or idea to surfaced, which this time will not be quite pleasing. It is also in human nature to feel or wants to be more superior to another. Therefore, to win, we will often group ourselves with another that have a similar stance on the subject because it is often thought that quantity is always greater than quality.

            Throughout history it is shown that factions in even the most glorious nation-states had been brought down to its knees.  It happens because often times the government tries to solve the faction problem by either restricting its people of their liberty or giving them too much liberty to the point that everyone is only interested in their gain. Madison then argues that it is impossible to remove the causes of faction, and rather trying to find a way around the impossible, it would much more efficient and easier to control its effects.

            He comes up with the idea of having multiple representatives in the government so not only will everyone’s voice be heard, but also the faction’s effects will decrease. This is done by setting up local, state, and national legislatures. This will prevent a majority from dominating a minority. The people will address their interests and/or grievances to the local legislatures, who will address the message to the state legislatures amongst the other local legislatures. If it is a common interest of the locals and it will bring good to the entire body of people who resides within the state, the state legislatures will bring it up with the national legislatures, who look at each interest and determine its pros and cons to the entire nation. By doing so, it eliminates a lot of the issues and interests that are prevalent to the welfare of the country because it only benefits a specific group of people while our government’s role is to maintain the freedom of liberty, life, and purist of happiness for ALL the citizens.

            Now for the part, you all be waiting for. The American Government works because WAIT. Even with the lessen likelihood of having a big faction appeared in our government, it would still be weak without any checks and balances.

“It is equally evident, that the members of each department should be as little dependent as possible on those of the others, for the emoluments annexed to their offices. Were the executive magistrate, or the judges, not independent of the legislature in this particular, their independence in every other would be merely nominal. 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.”

Without, the check and balance system, if the upper representatives decided that it was pointless or disagreeable, for whatever the reason is, they could easily throw the people’s interests/concerns away. This is why it is important for those groups of representatives to not be dependent on another group, whether it is above them or below them in terms of power and authority. Too much dependency on the other will contribute to the factions that the government is trying to control. When it comes down to it, the reason why the American Government has work for us even to this day is because of the distributions of powers into smaller groups and the checking and balancing of the powers between all the groups. And most importantly, the mere fact that it tries its best to provide a solution to a conflict that will benefit America as a whole.

p.s. keep in mind that I said “tries its best”. The system is not perfect like everything else in the world and it definitely have a long way to go.