Introduction
The federalist was a serialization of about 85 articles or essays, which were published in the New York Packet and The Independent Journal between the years 1787 to 1788. James Madison, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and J and A Maclean wrote them. These articles or essays were published to show up support for the ratification of the New Constitution of the United States of America.
These articles were sequentially numbered as they were being published. Their names changed with time from the Federalist to The Federalist Papers.
One of these papers is a paper by Madison, “The Federalist paper number 51,” which argues about the structure of government and the checks and balances that should be there. As an argument, though this goal is achievable in practice, the question of how are they going to be appointed remains because their appointment should be devoid of the influence of the other arms that make up the government.
The Federalist Number 51
In this article published on February 6 1788, Madison argues about how the structure of government should be and how it should be realized. He states that all the different arms of the government, as per the constitution, should be independent of one another though they should work in the direction of achieving the same constitutional goals it was intended to achieve.
As per the constitution, all holders of the public office should ideally be appointed by the people using a democratic process, being in a democratic society for the full achievement and adherence of liberty. Though the constitution provides for a democratic process, it would be very difficult to appoint holders of certain public offices using the democratic process.
On the other hand, members of these offices, which are the supreme executive, judiciary magistracies, and the legislature, are supposed to work independently by observing the principle of separation of powers. This argument leads back to the conclusion that members of these government agencies should be appointed from the same pool of authority who is the people.
This, as Madison argues, will be very difficult and expensive to achieve due to the dynamics that will be involved. In essence, he is simply trying to inform the reader that, though the constitution recommends for the application and adherence to the democratic process, the democratic process cannot be applied everywhere to a full success.
Nevertheless, the questions remain, ‘who will appoint whom across the agencies if the people cannot do it through the democratic process?’ ‘Who will appoint whom across agencies and maintain the independence of each agency without fear of patronage influence?’ He therefore comes up with a conclusion of the need to acknowledge the presence of some variations to the theory.
In the formation and appointment of the judiciary, Madison observes that these positions come with peculiar qualifications. The best mode of their appointment should be one that is able to secure these qualifications. Secondly, the office holders hold these positions on a permanent basis in nature. Thus, they should be completely divorced from dependence on the authorities that appoint them.
Madison explains further that the independence of each department should be coated with the empowerment of each department to resist any probable encroachment by others. The argument is true so because, on one hand, there are three distinct departments of the government while, on the other hand, there is one department that makes the laws that make these departments or break them.
This therefore makes it necessary for each department to be immune to some extent to the encroachment by the others. He further asserts that, to govern people, the government must be given authority to govern. At the same time, the governing authority has to have an internal structure that governs itself because people who are not perfect run the government.
Madison’s emphasis on the congress is brought out when he vouches for separation of power in the government by subjecting the governing body to diverse styles of polls as well as dissimilar ideologies of action. He explains that, in a Republican government, the legislature is predominant. Thus, as a way of providing checks and balances, it should be bicameral with the two divisions checking on the other.
Madison explains that the division of power between the two governments making up one government is a double security measure to the rights of people with each side checking on the other side as well as checking on themselves.
Madison argues that, though it is imperative for the nation to watch its people not in favor of tyranny by its leaders, it is also key to protect one side of the nation against the iniquities of the other side of it and therefore need to divide power and authority among different independent agencies. Further, in his views, he explains that there is the need to protect the different groups found in the society against oppression by others.
He explains in his views that, in case the majority come together under a common purpose, then the minority will suffer and thus the need to divide the definition of citizens into separate descriptions that would at the end of the day not allow a single description to give the majority headway. Madison believes that power independent of the society has the risk of carrying with it the unjust views of the majority.
In the real life situations, these provisions for separation of power have been used to control the different arms of government. The congress, on one hand, has the power to pass resolutions. The president, on the other hand, has the powers to veto these resolutions.
However, a rejoinder to checking the president is the two third majority power of the congress to overrule the president, which is a perfect example of how division of power is used to protect the interests of the people.
Madison believes that the concentration of power in the same hands is what he describes as tyranny, meaning those people holding the power will be the law unto themselves and unto others. They may oppress others with all the justification needed.
Conclusion
The language used by Madison in this paper is persuasive. It stands out as one that is meant to convince the people on why there has to be a division of power as well as the need for the congress to work parallel to the senate and the president on the other hand.
His language instills fear to both the majority and the minority by showing them how they can end up suffering if there is no division of power. The people’s interests are represented by the congress at the state level because, in America, which is a big country, power has to be brought close to the people.