Why does the American form of government work?

Federalist Essays No. 10:

"Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority."

This passage shows that one issue of Democracy and all types of government, is that not everyone can be satisfied by a decision. This means that a policy that helps largely populated states, but hurts less populated states, would have been voted for by the larger states because they have more people that represent them. This is a difficult issue to get rid of, but it is currently mitigated by having a two house system in congress. One house proportional to the population of each state, and one equal for each state.

"From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths."

This passage shows the author, James Madison, arguing his reasons why a direct or "pure democracy" wouldn't work. This idea of a direct democracy wouldn't work in America because the people aren't organized. In addition, if some people organize and get behind a common idea, that will overpower the people with no common ideas.


Federalist Essays No. 51:

"It is equally evident, that the members of each department should be as little dependent as possible on those of the others, for the emoluments annexed to their offices. Were the executive magistrate, or the judges, not independent of the legislature in this particular, their independence in every other would be merely nominal. But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others."

This shows that all branches of the government must work together to make sure that no one branch of government is more powerful that the others. It also shows that the branches of government must divide duties that would cause in individual to be coerced into making a decision that is not their own.

"There are, moreover, two considerations particularly applicable to the federal system of America, which place that system in a very interesting point of view. First. In a single republic, all the power surrendered by the people is submitted to the administration of a single government; and the usurpations are guarded against by a division of the government into distinct and separate departments. In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself. Second. It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. Different interests necessarily exist in different classes of citizens. If a majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure."

This passage states, that the power of the government cannot and will not revolve around one person, or group of people. This works because it allows the government to have all of the power that is allocated to them by the people, to be divided and divided into smaller categories. This means that each person in the government only gets power over a small portion of society. However, people that are directly voted into office get a larger portion. Examples of these people include representatives or the president.




http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed10.asp
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed51.asp