Tyranny of the Majority
The Need for a Stronger Union
As we’ve discussed before, in the American ideal governments are instituted among men to secure the natural rights of citizens. Our first government was established under the Articles of Confederation, which created a very weak federal government that lacked an executive and judicial branch. Additionally, its Congress had no authority to levy taxes. Thus, state governments were the dominant governing bodies. While these state governments did have executives, they were quite weak compared to the legislative bodies in the states which created a form of majority rule and legislative supremacy that often abridged the rights of those in the minority, therefore failing Jefferson’s purpose for the institution of governments outlined in the Declaration of Independence. The structure of the federal and state governments under the Articles were, of course, an overreaction to the overwhelming power of the King.
Influential leaders, namely James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington were rightly troubled by the failure of state governments to protect the natural rights of all of their citizens.
In April of 1787, James Madison wrote a piece entitled, “Vices of the Political System of the United States,” in which he listed problems and deficiencies in the Articles that were to be addressed in the upcoming Constitutional Convention. The last three vices had to do with states passing laws that were too numerous to understand, impractical, and unjust.
In “Notes on the State of Virginia,” Jefferson concurred that pure majority rule can be just as oppressive as the rule of a single individual with far reaching authority.
Washington lamented that the Articles did a poor job of dealing with the shortcomings of human nature. All three knew from experience that human nature required government by consent in addition to limits to government and the rule of the majority. They would be appalled at modern calls for a national popular vote or the Senate operating in king to the House of Representatives.
According to Ronald Pestritto, the authors of the Federalist Papers offered three ways in which the government under the Articles was insufficient.
It could not protect the rights of the people from foreign threats.
It failed to secure the conditions necessary for commerce and prosperity.
It could not protect the rights of the people from internal threats.
In short, as eloquently argued in Federalist #10 by James Madison, the states needed an improved federal government because of the problem of faction because men, by nature, are “ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious.” The Constitutional Convention set out to create a government that could moderate the influence of faction without extinguishing the flame of liberty. To maintain our liberty, it is essential that we reinstate that framework.