A Comparison of Direct Democracy and Republic and the Ideas of James Madison

This essay is a comparison of direct democracy and republic and the ideas of James Madison. Direct democracy is the type of government that they had before the Constitution was written. Having a direct democracy means giving power to the power and not the federal government. In the early 1900s, the Progressive era, brought about new reforms (Patterson, "Constitutional Democracy"). These reforms were intended to give the people direct power. Citizens were able to vote directly on legislative issues at the state and local level o to initiative and the referendum (Patterson, "Constitutional Democracy"). Office holders could be forced to submit reelection before the regular expiration by citizens due to the recall election reform. Citizens were able to gather enough signatures on a petition to directly enact or defeat legislation through their votes in an election (Patterson, "Constitutional Democracy'").

A republic form of government is not designed to have people directly vote on public or governmental issues. The elected representatives are voted in to respond to the majority but not be held captive to it. In other words it is a representative democracy but the people's representatives decide policy that is structured to provide careful and slow decision making and to work in the restraints to protect the people's individual rights (Patterson, "Constitutional Democracy"). It's not designed to keep people out of the circle of deciding on their government but to keep them from making reckless and not well planned policies. The republic form of government ties into the Constitution where it is talking about separation of powers and other limits on power. The United States has a republic type government. We elect representatives to go and make decisions for us. We trust them to make good decisions based on what's best for us and our public interests. Without this type of government we would have people making decisions that only help them and not everyone. That is more like a direct democracy.

The U.S. has so many people and states; therefore, it would be so many different policies and rules to follow. Which would cause uproar between the people of the U.S.? James Madison said in Federalist no. 10, "To secure the public good and private rights against the danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and form of popular government is then the great object to which our inquiries are directed." In this statement he is saying that we have to prevent a faction but still allow people to have a say in the government. This represents a republic style of government because in a republic the people vote for their representati ves to make decisions for them at the legislation events. He also goes to say "The federal Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect the great me aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular to the State legislatures." James Madison is saying that system the constitution tells us to participate in is a good choice because it breaks each part of government up giving the people an even bigger voice without them directly making legislative decisions.

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I believe that the United States should continue to have a republic type government because I don't think it would be beneficial to the lower classes. The elite or higher classes would make policies that would only benefit them. The way it's set up now gives everyone a chance to have a policy that helps them in some way. Republic will help keep the piece in the U.S. So I think without a republic form of government our country wouldn't have turned out to be what it is today. Any other form of government would have made everything our Founding Fathers worked so hard to achieve crumb to pieces and the Constitution would not even matter.

Reference

1. James Madison, Federalist no.10 Thomas E. Patterson, We the People, 11" edition

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