What is the logic that Madison uses to argue that minority factions are best controlled by the principle of majority rule?

Answer 1

Madison first asserts that there are two ways to limit the damage caused by faction: either remove the causes of faction or control its effects. He contends that there are two ways to remove the causes that provoke the development of factions. The first would work because "liberty is to faction what air is to fire" but it is impossible to perform because liberty is essential to political life and is what Americans have fought for during the revolutionary war. The other, creating a society homogeneous in opinions and interests, he sees as impractical. Impractical because common people's opinions are always influenced by their emotions and their self-interest. They don't always think clearly, they don't approach situations in the same way. The diversity of people's ability which make them succeed more or less and in which inequality of property derive is a right that the government should protect. Madison particularly emphasizes that economic stratification, which naturally exists in a world where different people have different skills, prevents everyone from sharing the same opinion. Madison concludes that the damage caused by faction can be limited only by controlling its effects.

He then argues that the only problem comes from majority factions because the principle of popular sovereignty should prevent minority factions from gaining power. Madison offers two ways to check majority factions: either prevent the "existence of the same passion or interest in a majority at the same time," or render a majority faction unable to act. Madison concludes that a small democracy cannot avoid the dangers of majority faction because small size means that undesirable passions can very easily spread to a majority of the people, which can then enact its will through the democratic government without difficulty.