Factional Control

Alex Moore

October 1st, 2015

Period 3

Factional Control

Because of the way that the government is structured, it is not uncommon to share the same beliefs and economic interests as another person. James Madison describes factions as, people who gather together to protect and promote their special economic interests and political opinions. There are many different factions who all support different ideas. The majority of factions are rivals, since they all do not believe in the same principles. Often times, faction groups only make decisions that will benefit themselves. They do not think about the other groups of people that the decisions will affect. This is a major problem when it is present in politics. If representatives are just looking out for their special interest group, others may be negatively affected. That is why, separation of powers is able to cure this control because no one group of people has complete control over laws and legislature.

In what is looked upon as one of the most well written, intellectual pieces of writing ever created during this time, James Madison discusses the idea of factional control and what role it plays in politics. Madison believed that there was only two ways to control factions, to remove its causes and control its effects. Being that we will never truly be able to make the distribution of property even, we will not be able to remove its causes. But what was possible, was to control its effects. The framers established a representative form of government, one in which a large group of people select a small number of people to represent them. Madison's thinking behind this was, that if he got nice guys into the position he would not need to worry about faction groups taking charge. The framers decided that although they representative government was still going to get good people in positions, they still wanted to put a check on them just in case. Separation of powers was created in order to prevent one group of people having complete say over all decisions. The powers needed to be split up into three branches, but each of the branches also still shares power within the others. This form of checks and balances was to allow one branch the right to overrule another branch if thought necessary.

Montesquieu originally had a very similar idea that framers revised in order for there to be checks and balances. Montesquieu believed that the government's authority should be strictly divided along institutional lines. He believed that all legislative power should be left to the legislature, all judicial power to the courts, and all executive power to the presidency. This belief made it way too easy for a faction group to have control.

Separate powers truly is a cure to blocking factional control. With checks and balances put in place, there is no way a factional group could pass legislature or make a decision that negatively affects the majority of Americans.

Thanks to Montesquieu's original idea and Madison's later elaboration in the federalist papers, we now have a government that is able to check each other's power.