Federalist No. 10 Analysis

1179 Words5 Pages
It is important for a nation to have separation of powers because history has taught us that excessive power in the hands of one group may abuse the power and bring a disastrous consequence, such as oppressing and exploiting the weak. Huey Long, who was the Governor of Louisiana and later a Senator from Louisiana, was rising to national prominence when he was killed by an assassin. All of his political enemies and many neutral observers believed he ran the state of Louisiana as a near dictatorship, and feared he might eventually do the same for the whole nation. However, I think our constitutional system is sufficient to guard against the dangers of the concentration of political authority and the seizure of unencumbered political power by…show more content…
Federalist No. 10 addresses the question of how to guard against factions, with interests contrary to the rights of others. Hamilton, who is known as one of the authors of Federalist paper, identifies the most serious source of faction to be the diversity of opinion in political life which leads to dispute over fundamental issues. He saw direct democracy as a danger to individual rights and advocated a representative democracy in order to protect individual liberty from majority rule, or from the effects of such inequality within society. Direct democracies cannot effectively protect personal and property rights and have always been characterized by conflict. American politicians are mostly from two competitive political parties. Party organizations are useful and convenient for voters in a way that they help reach and mobilize voters. Voters use party as a reputational cue that allows them to hold officeholders responsible, and identify with party they support from emotional attachment. Therefore, strategic politicians join one of the two parties to get guaranteed support and be elected by its supporters. However, many or one party is not suitable in order to guard dictatorship. For instance, if there was only one party that dominates political institutions, that party is likely to fail to converge everyone’s ideologies. Furthermore, if all members in House of Representatives and Senate unite, in worst case, it can produce dictatorship. On the other hand, multi party systems can be more complex to govern with more fractiousness and less harmony. It also can produce dictatorship if more than one parties unite and gain power. Two-party system promotes centrism and encourages political parties to find common positions which appeal to swaths of the electorate which leads to political

More about Federalist No. 10 Analysis

Open Document