Federalist 51

Kaley Roden
11/30/14
Government 4

Federalist 51

Federalist 51 is written by James Madison in 1788. He wrote it to explain that any branch of government can become tyrannical if they accumulate too much power. He explains how checks and balances help to keep the branches separate. He talks about human nature how government is needed because people are fallen. Even within the checks and balances, the departments of people have rules to limit their individual power.

In a republic the legislative branch will have a bit more power however, the Legislative branch is split into the house and senate. In a federal system in a republic the power surrendered by the people are allotted to divisions of the government then its subdivided into separate departments. There are so many separations among people and government that the minorities wont get drowned out. This is because each view is so different and separate. Stronger factions cannot overtake the weaker faction, like anarchy. Large factions and small will want a government that wants the best for everyone so both factions are in agreement. The larger the society the more likely it will able to self govern.

People come into a government for their rights to be secured. That is why they originally came to America, to have their own religion. People are somewhat selfish in that way because as we talked about in class, property is a right that encompasses all right and the people want their property. People are ambitious and there just needs to be a way to keep that under control. Powers divided among three branches helps to keep the people from making groups that overpower each other. The branches have constitutional means to check each other. For example Congress can impeach the president, president can veto laws from congress and the Supreme Court can reject laws from the president and congress.

People have selfish motives, each branch wants to have power and if one has more power than another they will have less power which is undesirable, this is why they can check their actions. It is the same with factions, they are managed by the constitution and none can overpower another because no faction will want another to be more powerful than them.