The Constitution is the highest law in the United States. It provides the framework for the government. After the constitution, the Federalist papers were created, works to ratify this constitution. In particular, Federalist papers #10 and #51, James Madison makes bold arguments and comments about the framing of the constitution. In both of these papers he discusses the subject of a large republic and factions as well as the separation of powers and how it gives us liberty.
The main purpose of Federalist paper #10 is factions. In any republic people are inevitably going to form factions. They form together as a union and have common interests. Madison fears the largest faction of them all, the poor. This results in an unequal distribution of property. Madison says two things. We can either control the source of the factions or control the effects of the factions. It's pretty impossible to control the source of the factions so we try to control the effects. Madison says, "Liberty is to factions as air is to fire." We can't control air unless it feeds to fire and we can't control liberty. The purpose is how we're going to control the effects of factions. We have to worry about the tyranny of the masses, the mob, and the poor.
We are going to control its effects with a republic. Madison makes three main arguments. First, if we have a large republic, and we're electing senators and large blocks in states, that the more people we have, the less chance there is for corruption. The accountable the leaders, the good men in society, are going to be to the people because they have to get so many votes. If we have a closed society, a very small republic, it's very easy for the people to be fooled. So basically to control corruption and bad behavior, we have to have a large republic. Second, Madison says, the larger republic we have, the larger the faction becomes and the less it will be able to be unified.
