Federalist #10 discusses factions and their dangers. James Madison defines a faction as a group united by some interest or passion adverse to the rights of other citizens. The chief causes of factions are differences of opinion from self-interest and property ownership. A pure democracy cannot control factions because a majority faction can sacrifice the rights of others. A republic is preferable because it can control factions through representation and by including more citizens over a larger geographic area.

1. Federalist #10

2. Learning Outcomes
• Define a political faction and identify
factions in contemporary society
• Understand the problems that shaped the
Founders thought when creating the new
US Constitution
• Explain how a democratic republic
provides safeguards against factions

3. Influence of Ancient
Democracies
• The Founders believed
that by looking back at
the history of the ancient
democracies of Rome
and Greece, they could
learn from past mistakes
and prevent the new
United States democracy
from becoming infected
The Parthenon, symbol of Greek
by the problems that Democracy
destroyed past societies.

4. Problem of Tyranny
• Democracies and
Republics are
generally short-lived
and prone to
majorities
establishing a
dictatorship
Julius Caesar, “Veni, vedi, vici.” “I
came, I saw, I conquered.”

5. Problem of Conspiracy
• Reading Herodotus, Plutarch and Livy’s
histories of the ancient world revealed to
the Founding Fathers that conspiracy in
government, is not the exception but the
rule.
• Philosopher and Statesmen Marcus
Tullius Cicero 106 BC-43 BC

7. Federalist #10 Reading Questions
• What is a faction and why are they
formed?
• According to Madison what are the chief
causes of faction?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=QcWaCsvpikQ

8. Factions
• By a faction, I mean a
group of citizens,
either a majority or
minority, united by
some passion or
interest adverse to
the rights or other
citizens or to the
aggregate interests of
the community.

9. Why are factions to be feared?
• Self-love is an inherent
aspect of human
nature. People are:
– Selfish
– Biased
– Often overcome with
emotion
– Often do unreasonable
things
• Groups can amplify all
of these bad
tendencies.

10. Dangers of Factions
• Even the most virtuous
citizens, “complain our
(democratic) governments
are too unstable. They say
the public good is
disregarded in the conflicts
of rival parties. Too often
measures are decided by
the superior force of an
interested and overbearing
majority rather than the
rules of justice and the
rights of the minority party.”
James Madison, author of
Federalist #10

11. Dangers Continued
• When a faction
gains political
power, it is likely to:
– Pursue its own
interests zealously.
– Trample the rights
of others.
– Govern without
concern for the
“public good.”

12. What can be done to remedy
factions?
• There are two possibilities:
1.Take steps to stop factions from forming
2.Accept factions and take steps to keep them
from gaining too much political power

13. Air is to Fire
• Destroy the liberty essential for it to
exist of give every citizen the same
opinions, passions, and interests.
• The first remedy is worse than a
disease. Liberty is to faction what
air is to fire. Without the nourishment
of liberty, faction instantly dies. But
abolishing liberty, an essential of
political life, is as silly as the wish to
annihilate air, as essential of animal
life, because it gives fire its destructive
agency.

14. Equal Passions
• The second cure is as
impractical as the first is
unwise. As long as man’s
reasoning remains fallible and
he’s free to use it, different
opinions will be formed. As
long as self-love exists,
opinions and passions will
influence each other.
• Property Rights – The Diversity
of Property ownership divides
societies into groups with
different interests and
concerns.

15. Inherent in Human Nature
• Therefore, faction is part of the very nature of man.
We see different degrees of it in different
circumstances. Differing opinions in religion and
government in both theory and practice, the various
ambitions of leaders, human passions, and diversity of
interests have, at various times, divided mankind into
parties and inflamed animosity, making them more
apt to oppress each other than cooperate for their
common good.
• The obvious inference is that the causes of faction
cannot be removed and relief can only be sought in
the means of controlling its effects.

16. Second Set of Questions
• Why can’t a pure democracy control
factions?
• According to the Madison what are the
benefits of a Republic in controlling
factions?
• Is the size of the United States a
safeguard against faction?

17. Majority Factions
• If a faction isn’t a
majority, relief comes
from the republican
principle that enables
the majority to defeat
the sinister views by
vote. When a faction is
a majority, popular
government enables it
to sacrifice public good
and the rights of other
citizens to their
passions and interests.

18. Pure Democracy
• Pure Democracies are always spectacles of
turbulence and contention.
• The two great points of difference between a
democracy and a republic are: first, in a
republic a small number of delegate are
elected by the rest of the citizens, secondly, a
republic can be composed of a greater
number of citizens over a larger country.

19. Representation
• Representation refines
and enlarges public views
by passing them through
the chosen body of
citizens.
• The representatives’
wisdom may discern the
true interest of their
country and their Senator Robert La Follette of
patriotism and love of Wisconsin, ran for president in
justice will make it less 1912 campaigning against
likely to sacrifice it to World War I.
temporary or partial
considerations.

20. Small Nations
• The smaller the society, the fewer the
distinct parties and interests, and the more
frequently they will be a majority. The
smaller the number of individuals
composing a majority and the smaller area
they inhabit, the more easily will they
combine and execute their plans of
oppression.

21. Expand the Size
• Expand the size adds a
greater variety of parties
and interest. It becomes
les probable that a
majority of the whole will
have a common motive to
invade the rights of other
citizens.
• Even if a common motive
exists, it will be more
difficult for those holding it
to discover their combined
strength and act in unison
with each other.

22. Laboratories of Democracy
• Factious leaders may
kindle a flame within their
specific States, while not
able to spread a general
conflagration through the
other States. A religious
sect may degenerate a
political faction in a part of
the Confederacy. But the
varied sects dispersed
over the entire country
secures the national
councils against danger
from this source.