Federalist Paper 51 Summary

In Federalist Paper 51 titled, “The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments,” James Madison proposed a new structure of federal government that he felt would solve the problems of the former government. The former system of government relied on state governments that were able to oppress its peoples. The Federalist Papers sought to prevent anarchy by way of a strong federal government and equal representation of American citizens.
Madison stated there should be three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial. In his proposal, he stated that if “this principle [is] rigorously adhered to,” then the elected officials of each of the three branches would be, “drawn

from the same fountain of authority- the people.” Madison asserted that the concentration of power in the legislative branch would best be controlled by the people, but that other actions should be taken to balance power and bring order to the federal government. It was suggested that the dominant legislative branch be split so as to not overpower the other two branches. Today’s government accounts for this as the legislative branch has been split into the Senate and the House of Representatives. On the other hand, it was suggested that the weaker executive branch be fortified. Today, the executive branch is, “Strengthened by the veto.” The exception to having people as a principal source of control is the judicial branch because judges need to meet certain qualifications and serve tenure for life; thus, they are chosen by a different mode of election. The manner in which these three branches of government are structured are highly similar to how the United States’ government operates today because American citizens vote for representatives in the legislative branch as well as for the president in the executive branch. The judicial branch members, like Madison stated, are elected in an alternative manner by the President appointing judges and the U.S. Senate approving them.
The paper stated that the members of each branch of government should have little influence regarding the appointment of members of the other branches and should remain independent from the other branches so that each has its own intentions. In addition, each branch should not be dependent on another for their pay. To a degree, these statements resemble the government of today because while the branches don’t depend on one another, the pay of its members is supplemented through taxes.
A glaring problem of the government system in the 18th century was the ability to control the government.

The republic should be able to, “guard the society against the oppression of its rulers,” but also “guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part.” If a nation is not primarily run by the people, then the government has the ability to oppress them by implementing taxes and laws and revoking basic rights without their consent (as witnessed in the events preceding the Revolutionary War). The separate state governments did not allow every person to have a voice for their country even though “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government.” However, if too much authority is in the hands of the citizens, then, “the rights of the minority will be insecure,” because majority groups will be, “united by a common interest.” One analysis of these rights states that the “community will” (good intention of the government) is, “independent of the simple majority,” and that a government placing “power behind a group in society working against the public good” would be detrimental. Madison’s intention discussing factions is that we must strike a balance between representing the common interests of the people while not excluding minorities and placing trust in an unjust popular interest. The government of today takes into account Madison’s extensive concept of factionalism which includes the Republican, Democratic, and

Independent political parties in a system that does not allow a particular group of people to overpower the rights of citizens.
The author writes about how a system of checks and balances is necessary for a smoothly operating federal government. As mentioned earlier, today’s government implements three independent branches. He brings into account that a “double security arises to the rights of the people,” and then justifies his statement by writing that “the different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” What he means by this is that the rights of the people under his proposed system will be securely protected because the different branches of government will check each other and the individual state governments are checked as they protect the rights of their people.
Paper 51 essentially states that “Justice is the purpose of government and civil society.” Society must not allow the powerful to overpower the weaker, and society must not allow the influential to “submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves,” in order to prevent the government from acquiring too much power. Today’s government evidently takes this into consideration because over the last few decades, the federal government has taken measures to try and cover all of the citizens in the United States (e.g. Obama Care).
Although not an exact replica, the new form of government that James Madison presented in Federalist Paper 51 astonishingly resembles how the United States’ government operates today. The discussion of the division of power in the federal government as well as equal representation in state governments is prevalent today. It is apparent that the United States has used Federalist Paper 51 as a guideline for how its government should be operated.