In Federalist No. 10, Madison’s primary objective was to explain the advantages of the republican form of government found in the new constitution in contrast to that of pure democracy. In reformatting the loose union of States of the Articles of the Confederation to that which would become the union of the several States (and later the singular United States), it was important for less populated of the several States to avoid the tyranny of those States with greater population. Furthermore, under the Articles each State was its own sovereign entity, and as such it was imperative for each State to have as much representation under the new constitution as its sister States. The problem begins with the Articles themselves, under which Madison argues:
Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, 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.
Madison’s aim was to reconcile the problem of majority rules and minority rights in the proper context of the sovereignty of each State. Thus presents the central problem of the ratification process: How is everyone fairly represented under the new united States? This is the question that Madison answered with general republicanism, “[i]n the extent and proper structure of the Union, therefore, we behold a republican remedy for the diseases most incident to republican government."
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