Allyssa Guinid
DM 02: The Mischief of Factions
1. Referring to Madison’s words, pure democracy is a system where a society has a smaller
group of people who conduct conferences to discuss and control the government.
2. A republic is a government in where representatives of the nation conduct ideas for
solutions to present and future problems. Madison addresses the differences of a republic
and a pure democracy. A republic has the government controlled by representatives who
have the power to address bigger, crucial ideas. While, a pure democracy is a small group
of citizens catering to each and every little problem everyone has.
3. According to Madison’s writing, faction is a group of citizens who are unified by
common interests and beliefs that may be harmful to the rights of other citizens not part
of their faction. Madison depicts them in a negative light because he believes that a
faction consisting of the majority has the power to oppress the faction consisting of the
minority.
4. Madison’s solutions to the effects of factions are to create an even bigger faction and to
elect representatives by the greater society. Organizing a bigger faction creates a variety
of different people with different interests or ideas which can eliminate a majority with a
main focus. By preventing a majority, it is less likely that anybody will scheme to violate
the rights of minorities. Another solution is to elect representatives by a great number of
people and to give these people a variety of electors to vote for. Getting elected by a large
number of people can mean that the candidate is deserving of this role. The candidate was
able to show the people their greatest strengths and the people decided they were worthy
of being a representative out of a numerous other candidates. Making it unlikely for an
“unworthy candidate” (Madison 18) to win.
5. Tyranny in Madison’s eyes is the majority overpowering and oppressing the minority. In
this paper, the majority may be people who have less property- the poor - and the
minority are the people with more property- the rich. The majority may have the desire to
control the government for their benefit. They can execute plans like “abolition of debts,
… equal division of property” (Madison 22) which are not for the advancement of the
nation but rather for their own selfish reasons.
Work Cited
Madison, James. Federalist No. 10: "The Same Subject Continued: The Union as a Safeguard
Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection." New York Daily Advertiser, November 22, 1787.