Minority Factions

In American Politics, the term “factions” derives from our greatest American political theorist, James Madison. In the Federalist Papers, published as a series of opinion pieces or essays, Madison, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, argued for the ratification of the US Constitution. One of Madison’s most famous arguments was in reference to factions in Federalist #10. Madison’s definition of factions is as follows:

By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.

According to this definition, there are an infinite amount of factions throughout the world. The factions that the founding fathers were cautious of were the majority faction. They feared the possibility of a political movement led by a king or a mob that could swoop into power and quickly suppress the minority factions of their individual civil rights or liberties or become a threat to the public good. The constitution that our founding fathers created heavily favored minority factions from the possible oppression of the majority rule.

Reform Our Republic believes that the changes in technology and economics as well as changes to our constitution have led to a political system that overwhelmingly favors minority factions. The following pages articulate the external and internal influences that minority factions have on our government.

• Home
• The Problem
  • Minority Factions
  • External Controls
  • Internal Controls
• The Solution
  • Amendments
  • Ban Private Money
  • Reform the Nomination Process
  • Overturn Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission
• What You Can Do