James Madison

The Founding: United States

*Ideological backdrop

a) European Enlightenment

*deep irrationality* —> Tubula Rasa

b) America as Empire of Reason

—> Blank Slate (positive)

—> Land of possibility

—> 2nd Eden

But not native Americans, slavery, women

Founding: 2 moments

• Declaration of Independence (1776) Radical

  1. Preamble→”we the people”→ Social contract

  2. Revolution ←→ 3. Inalienable rights

     Constitution (1787) Conservative

     Representation

Federalist Papers

• National campaign to garner support for constitution-no pres. term limits-no direct democracy-central govt looked like king-controversial→suspicious

  -1st public relations campaign

  -85 papers → 1st appeared Oct 1787

• Madison. Hamilton. James Jay.

  -published under pen name → Publius (“the public”)

*We had 2 constitutions—> Articles of Confederation, Constitution

Issues Central to Debate

• Power

  -Who should rule? → People on elites

  -How do we prevent the abuse of power?

  -Tranny of the majority

• Representation

Federalists (Pro-Cons)

• Strong central gov’t

• Representatives system

• Feared tyranny of maj.

  -afraid of giving too much power to the people

Anti-Federalists (Anti-Cons)

• power to the states

  -feared power @ national level

• fear of power to the elites

• direct democracy

• simple structure of gov’t

Anti-Feds (cont.)

• Concerned constitution w/ its president, indirect election of senators. Lifetime appt of Justices—> abuse of power by powerful few

• pure den

• “superior power of the people should be trusted”

  -need direct say in gov’t

  -grow distrustful of disobey laws

Feds

• afraid of too much power to people → unjust?

• problems

  -Sheer force of # of maj could trample rights of others

  -shay’s → tyranny of the majority

  —

  |Plato -”factions”—>based on in

  | interest, common

  | impulse of passion

  | adverse to the rights of | citizens or to the | permanent

  —

• aggregated interests of the community”

• short-term interests that are “partial & temporary”

• pure democracy does not cure factions

Federalist 10 (Madison)

• “Latent factions are sown in the nature of men”

• causes

  -diff in political opinion leads to disputes (regimes or religions)

Factions

• 2 ways to cure

  -Remove causes

  -control effects

*Form a Republic → Representational Gov’t

- gov’t in hands of delegates

-small # of citizens elected

-ability to make decisions for long term interests

Federalist #51

• Constitution protects against unjust rule of the powerful few

  -tyranny of the few

Separation of Powers

3 Branches

Legislative, Executive, Judicial

“Ambition must counter ambition”-Madison

*mixed regime

→diff vote

→constituents

→terms

Chart of terms for the branches

Legislative Judicial Executive

-House of Reps -Appointed by -electoral

& Senate pres college

-every 2 yrs -Life -2 terms

-House is not 4 yrs

staggard elec- each

tions

-senate→every

6 yrs

-1/3 stagger

elections

Checks & Balances

Exec Leg Jud

Exec x

Leg x

Jud x

Constitution (1787) —> Conservative

1. Distrustful of Democracy: Electoral College

   -plato

2. Strong central gov’t

   -Hobbes

3. Check on power

   -Madison