Why Does the American Form of Government Work?

Federalist Essay No. 10

1. "It must be confessed that in this, as in most other cases, there is a mean, on both sides of which inconveniences will be found to lie. By enlarging too much the number of electors, you render the representatives too little acquainted with all their local circumstances and lesser interests; as by reducing it too much, you render him unduly attached to these, and too little fit to comprehend and pursue great and national objects. The federal Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular to the State legislatures." 
This clause helped create a functioning US government because it balanced the number of representatives within the legislative branch. This quote demonstrates how the Constitution appointed a specific amount of representatives that allowed for enough representation of the people to truly know their representatives, yet not too many that the representatives so that everyone would be able to actually work on a national level.

2. "The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties."
The government was successful because it acknowledged the rights of individual citizens to critique the government. By allowing Americans to have a voice, the US government ensured that it would stay as just that -- voices. Because frustrations and differing opinions were protected by the government, people were able to voice their thoughts and help improve society and their own government.

Federalist Essay No. 51

1. "In order to lay a due foundation for that separate and distinct exercise of the different powers of government, which to a certain extent is admitted on all hands to be essential to the preservation of liberty, it is evident that each department should have a will of its own; and consequently should be so constituted that the members of each should have as little agency as possible in the appointment of the members of the others. Were this principle rigorously adhered to, it would require that all the appointments for the supreme executive, legislative, and judiciary magistracies should be drawn from the same fountain of authority, the people, through channels having no communication whatever with one another."
This quote demonstrates a key part of America's emerging democracy -- separation of powers. Inspired by Baron de Montesquieu's ideas, this theory of separation of powers lessens the threat of corruption and tyranny. Because of balance of powers between the three branches, one corrupt leader cannot bring down the whole system of government, ensuring a long-lasting system.

2. "Whilst all authority in it will be derived from and dependent on the society, the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority. In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects."
Through this section of the essay, a plan to use the different branches of government to create a system of checks and balances. America's government was able to succeed because it helped alleviate the fears of the public that the government would become tyrannical. The different groups within the government would hold each other in place, as all would want to have the most power, so none would -- they would limit each other's power in their quest for their own.