Thoughts on Federalist 51

I just finished reading the Federalist Papers numbers 10, 51, and 57 for class. For some reason, a couple of points in 51 caught at me more than the rest of the documents.

The first is Madison's statement that "If men were angels, no government would be necessary." Not only does this strike me as true, it reminds me of my roommate, who wistfully wishes that we didn't have to have laws.

However, while it's true that if men were angels, no government would be needed, if men were demons, no government would work. In fact, the whole principle of government depends on most people being basically decent and honest. It would be impossible to enforce laws against say, stealing, if 90% of people ran around robbing each other blind. Our society depends on most people following laws and honoring contracts without coercion. The fact that society continues to click along is a wonderful testament to the innate goodness of mankind. We are, if not angelic, at least humane.

The second thing that struck me is one of the methods Madison proposes to keep a majority from trampling on the rites of a minority. He says that in the Republican government of the United States "the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority."

What struck me about this is that it seems to strike against the constant calls for "unity" in our current political situation. I think that there is a constructive sort of unity, involving respecting each other despite political differences and treating everyone fairly and with courtesy. This is probably what most people mean when they say we need more "unity."

However, there is a second form of unity, a destructive form and one which Madison warned about. In this form, people surrender their principles purely for the sake of becoming "unified." I fear that, as we recognize the need for the first sort of unity, we sometimes couple it with the second sort, and this could be dangerous. It's bad enough that we currently only have two major political parties. Let's not insist that they agree on everything, 'kay?