In The Federalist 51, Madison sets out to explain the necessity of the constitutional setup of the government in preserving liberty. Since Madison is most concerned with the development of a faction, whether in government or among the people, which would threaten the liberty on which the United States is based, he advocates a system which would hopefully eliminate that threat. Madison finds that a government can only be safely powerful if the power is divided up enough that any one part does not have the ability to expand. This separation of powers must be true among the different sections of the government, as well as among the people. Liberty must be preserved and Madison finds that the setup of the government and the delegation of powers is the only way to achieve it.

Federalist 51 clearly states that men are not “angels” who would be capable of governing themselves without an official centralized government and that it is the imperfection of human nature that necessitate government. On the other hand, giving power to any specified group creates the possibility that that power will be abused. Madison sees government as the “greatest of all reflections

Madison says the only way to create a government which effectively controls the people and itself, which is Madison’s ideal arrangement to protect against factions among the people or in the government, is to setup controls. The most important control is the separation of powers. By dividing the government into three parts, the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches, there are already three divisions whose interests conflict and are therefore forced to compromise, leading to a motive more equivalent to that of the common good. Madison found this separation of powers among a powerful government to be essential in the preservation of liberty. With several divisions setup in the government which are given distinct powers, they are able to keep each other in check. Madison says it is important for each power to have a “will of its own” and little say in the appointment of members of other divisions. This is necessary since the power to appoint or vote for members of other sects of the government may lead to unlawful exchanges for the appointment of a certain party of person. When given that power, the government officials voted in to perform a specified job is now influenced by those who voted them in or those who want their vote. The motives of the government are then no longer for the common good because the individual interests are easily accessible. Were the judicial branch given the power to vote in the members of the congress, they would automatically hold more power, threatening Madison’s greatest fear of a single powerful group having the ability to become factionist.

Likewise, the most powerful branch of the three, the Legislative Branch, is broken up into the Senate and the House of Representatives, and given different electoral processes. These different appointment and voting procedures ensure that a certain majority or powerful group is not able to control who makes up these powerful sects of the government. At the time the Federalist 51 was written, the Constitution gave the House of Representatives, which was elected by the people of each state, the authority to vote in the Senators. Under these procedures, the power to choose the Congress is divided among two groups of p

Some topics in this essay:
House Representatives, Factions Federalist, Judicial Branches, Rhode Island, Supreme Court, separation powers, government people, federalist 51, Legislative Branch, setup government, madison government, madison’s ideal, powerful government, people madison, government setup, human nature,