How we cite our quotes: (Essay.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Complaints are everywhere heard […] that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority. (10.1)
Madison's tossing shade at the political climate he's writing in, clearly. However, it's interesting to note that—if he did have Shays' Rebellion in mind when he was writing Federalist 10—that event was a crisis of a minority's overbearing power over a majority. Curious. Given his distrust of average people in a democracy, which majority group do you think he's most concerned about?
Quote #2
If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote. It may clog the administration, it may convulse the society; but it will be unable to execute and mask its violence under the forms of the Constitution. (10.10)
This seems like a pretty apt prediction at the different partisan block-ups that have occurred over our long two-century relationship with the two-party system: two factions always fighting for the majority position.
Quote #3
When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens. (10.11)
This is his main rationale as to why true democracies can't work. In a lot of ways, he's right: there has to be protections for the most vulnerable people in society. But what groups did he consider vulnerable?