Federalist paper no 10

Federalist paper no 10

This paper talks about how to defend or guard against factions. Factions are defined as a group of citizens that share a belief or an interest that is contrary to the rights of others or the whole community. The main question argued in this paper is how dangerous the faction is and how to protect against it or eliminate it. The short answer that Madison gives is that a strong republic would help defend against factions. Madison attacks the diversity of opinions and different interests and accuse it of being the main reason of such disharmony. By adapting a common interest shared among all factions which will create a united republic is the solution to this dilemma. This was Madison’s more realistic method of solving the issue after he rejected another method he himself mentions. He argues that destroying liberty could solve the issue by not give these factions the freedom to express their beliefs and interests but this method is unrealistic and impossible to apply. The people fought for liberty in the first place and to destroy liberty, you have to destroy everything the Americans fought for in the American Revolution. He then argues that a republic is better than pure democracy. He states the difference as the democracy is people votes directly for laws they favor while a republic is where people vote for a person from the elites whom they trust. The elected elites does all the voting for laws on a republic. By doing so, Madison eliminates the vast interest of different faction and the people and gets the community to agree on few personalities who gains control over what the community’s interests are.  The larger the community, the bigger pool of fit people to choose from to lead the country.