10, James Madison gives his arguments for a Republic government and reasons why he is against a pure Democracy. Madison supports the Constitution because it establishes a Republic government that is capable of controlling the "violence of faction." He feels that a purely democratic government would not be able to protect the rights of small groups. The actual definition of a Republic government is: a constitutionally limited government of the representative type, created by a written Constitution--adopted by the people and changeable (from its original meaning) by them only by its amendment--with its powers divided between three separate Branches: Executive, Legislative and Judicial.
In a Republic government, Madison believed that many of the problems that plagued pure democracies could be fixed. He stated that one of the advantages of a Republic was that a chosen body of citizens, whose thoughts and beliefs represented the true interests of the country, would be more likely to elect respectable representatives than a large faction electing representatives who only portrayed the views of their faction. In a purely democratic government, the majority would rule, even if the majority was corrupt and did not share the same views as smaller minorities. Madison believed that this form of government would cause many problems and would not be a fair representation of the entire country.
The main problem with a pure Democracy was the formations of powerful factions. Madison defines factions as groups of people who gather together to protect and promote their special economic interests and political opinions. Although these factions are at odds with each other, they frequently work against the public interests, and infringe upon the rights of others. Madison believed that it is the nature of man to create factions. Men will always hold different opinions, different amounts of wealth and will naturally group with people that share the most similarity to them.
