Today I consulted my Library of America volume of James Madison’s writings, looking for one thing, and chanced upon something else, that I thought I’d pass on. As any student of American history knows, the revolutionary generation, an intensely partisan bunch, nonetheless had a fear of parties, which they sometimes called factions. They were concerned to find a way to channel the natural propensity of people to form parties in such a way that, despite themselves, the natural interplay of the parties would advance the common good. Here’s what Madison said.
In every political society, parties are unavoidable. A difference of
interests, real or supposed, is the most natural and fruitful source of
them. The great object should be to combat the evil: 1. By establishing a
political equality among all. 2. By withholding unnecessary opportunities
from a few, to increase the inequality of property, by an immoderate, and
especially an unmerited, accumulation of riches. 3. By the silent operation
of laws, which, without violating the rights of property, reduce extreme
wealth towards a state of mediocrity, and raise extreme indigence towards a
state of comfort. 4. By abstaining from measures which operate differently
on different interests, and particularly such as favor one interest at the
expence of another. 5. By making one party a check on the other, so far as
the existence of parties cannot be prevented, nor their views accommodated.
If this is not the language of reason, it is that of republicanism.
If those are the domestic criteria for a health republic, we are failing miserably. Though he is speaking particularly to the danger of parties, he is also, I think, speaking more broadly about the necessary conditions to the survival of a republic. One could have an interesting debate about which of these criteria we come closest to meeting. My vote would be, very tentatively, for number 5, since events have shown that even a party so solidly entrenched as the Republicans appeared to be, can be toppled. Now we need to see if, by doing so, we the people have made, or will make, any progress on items one through four. Don’t bet on it.
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