What 3 words described James Madison's political thought?

Answer 1

James Madison was first and foremost a liberal in the classical or Lockean sense. For Madison, governments are founded on the consent of the governed, and, when they become oppressive, the people have a right to revolution. The primary role of government is to secure the public good and the natural rights of the governed. Madison is especially famous for his dedication to private property and religious liberty.

Madison was also a republican. He devoted his life to the cause of self-government.

Madison was a preeminent institution builder. He was the primary thinker behind the compound or federal republic. His ideas on democratic institutions include:

Representation

Self-government via representative rather than direct democracy secures the best characters - men of property, of learning, and of letters - as office holders in government.

The Extended Sphere

The conventional wisdom of the day was that self-government was only possible in a contracted territory with a small population. This was an idea that Madison sought to refute.

Madison believed the problem of factions (we call them interest groups today) was the fatal disease of popular governments. Factions are groups of citizens who have interests or passions averse to the rights of others or to the public good. He believed that factions are inevitable, and that the only way to prevent them from oppressing others was to prevent them from becoming a majority.

The only way to do this is to extend the sphere of democratic governance to incorporate so many factions that no single faction could ever amount to a majority. Only by extending democratic governance over a wide territory and diverse population will society be safe from any one faction outnumbering and oppressing the rest.

Checks and Balances

"Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place." - Federalist 51

For Madison, not all politicians are interested in justice or the public good. There are many ambitious politicians who would rather expand their power at the expense of the other branches and oppress the people. For Madison, ambition is a flaw of human nature that can't be changed, but can be accommodated, hence the institution of checks and balances.

Not only must each branch be separate from the others, but they must be given the means to weaken each other. If one branch tries to usurp the powers of another branch, the latter must have the means to check and balance the former. If politicians are basically ambitious, they will have the personal motive to exercise their constitutional authority to defend the legitimate powers of their offices.

Federalism

Madison believed that the national government should have the power to act directly on individuals while preserving the integrity of state sovereignty at the same time. Thus individuals place themselves under the laws of two distinct governments: state and national.

Madison showed how state governments could be preserved as independent sovereigns. According to Madison, under the Constitution, the authority of the federal government extends to specific, enumerated objects. Any power not granted to the federal government is left to the states, so that "the powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite" (federalist 45).

In Federalist 39, Madison shows how the government described by the Constitution is a mix of federal and national elements. The Constitution is federal as it regards the Union as a community of separate sovereign states, and national as it regards the Union as a community of individuals under one national government.

Answer 2

Abolishing rights towards blacks and taking away all power from them whatsoever. He also encaged them in zoos which is why we still have them in our zoos today

Answer 3

The three words that describes James Madison's political thoughts are : "Constitutionalism, Federalism and

Republicanism".

Answer 4

yes