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Federalist No. 51: Difference between revisions
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== Background == | == Federalist No. 51 Background == | ||
* Federalists 37-84, in general, review the proposed structure of the federal government and discuss it's theoretical foundations in a republican form of government | * Federalists 37-84, in general, review the proposed structure of the federal government and discuss it's theoretical foundations in a republican form of government | ||
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'''''<big>The second method will be exemplified in the federal republic of the United States. Whilst all authority in it will be derived from and dependent on the society, the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority. In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects. The degree of security in both cases will depend on the number of interests and sects; and this may be presumed to depend on the extent of country and number of people comprehended under the same government.</big>''''' | '''''<big>The second method will be exemplified in the federal republic of the United States. Whilst all authority in it will be derived from and dependent on the society, the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority. In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects. The degree of security in both cases will depend on the number of interests and sects; and this may be presumed to depend on the extent of country and number of people comprehended under the same government.</big>''''' | ||
|cell style="background-color:#ffffe6"| | |cell style="background-color:#ffffe6"|Minority rights will be protected by the separation and division of powers | ||
* protection from "combinations of the majority" | |||
Civil protections are as important as religious protections | |||
* just as the right to practice one's religion ought to be protected, even if it is not the dominant religion... | |||
** Madison importantly asserts that just as the rights of minority religions must be protected, | |||
*** the rights of political minorities must be protected equally. | |||
The more "interests" or "sects" (i.e., opposing points of view) the higher the security for all across a large country | |||
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'''''<big>This view of the subject must particularly recommend a proper federal system to all the sincere and considerate friends of republican government, since it shows that in exact proportion as the territory of the Union may be formed into more circumscribed Confederacies, or States oppressive combinations of a majority will be facilitated: the best security, under the republican forms, for the rights of every class of citizens, will be diminished: and consequently the stability and independence of some member of the government, the only other security, must be proportionately increased.</big>''''' | '''''<big>This view of the subject must particularly recommend a proper federal system to all the sincere and considerate friends of republican government, since it shows that in exact proportion as the territory of the Union may be formed into more circumscribed Confederacies, or States oppressive combinations of a majority will be facilitated: the best security, under the republican forms, for the rights of every class of citizens, will be diminished: and consequently the stability and independence of some member of the government, the only other security, must be proportionately increased.</big>''''' | ||
|cell style="background-color:#ffffe6"| | |cell style="background-color:#ffffe6"|the "federal" form of government will protect from states may "combine" to control the others | ||
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|'''''<big>Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger; and as, in the latter state, even the stronger individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves; so, in the former state, will the more powerful factions or parties be gradually induced, by a like motive, to wish for a government which will protect all parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful.</big>''''' | |'''''<big>Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger; and as, in the latter state, even the stronger individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves; so, in the former state, will the more powerful factions or parties be gradually induced, by a like motive, to wish for a government which will protect all parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful.</big>''''' | ||
|cell style="background-color:#ffffe6"| | |cell style="background-color:#ffffe6"|Justice is the purpose of government | ||
* If one faction is allowed to dominate others, there will be no justice | |||
* just as strong people may use government to control the weak | |||
* the weak may seek government to protect themselves from the strong | |||
* the balance between both will protect "the weaker as well as the more powerful" | |||
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'''''<big>It can be little doubted that if the State of Rhode Island was separated from the Confederacy and left to itself, the insecurity of rights under the popular form of government within such narrow limits would be displayed by such reiterated oppressions of factious majorities that some power altogether independent of the people would soon be called for by the voice of the very factions whose misrule had proved the necessity of it.</big>''''' | '''''<big>It can be little doubted that if the State of Rhode Island was separated from the Confederacy and left to itself, the insecurity of rights under the popular form of government within such narrow limits would be displayed by such reiterated oppressions of factious majorities that some power altogether independent of the people would soon be called for by the voice of the very factions whose misrule had proved the necessity of it.</big>''''' | ||
|cell style="background-color:#ffffe6"| | |cell style="background-color:#ffffe6"|Madison uses the example of Rhode Island as the smallest state | ||
* if one of many independent states, Rhode Island would be easily dominated by stronger states | |||
* but, if | |||
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