These Truths: A History of the United States

by Jill Lepore

Madison had promised that the Constitution would insure its stability. A democracy, in which the people “assemble and administer the government in person,” will always be subject to endless “turbulence and contention,” he argued, but a republic, in which the people elect representatives to do the work of governing, can steer clear of that fate by electing men who will always put the public good before narrow or partisan interests, the good of all above the good of any part or party. Earlier political thinkers had suggested that this system could only work if a republic were small. Madison argued that it could only work if a republic were large, for two reasons. First, in a large republic, there would be more men to choose from, and so a better chance, purely as a matter of numbers, for the people to elect men who will guard the public interest. Second, in a large republic, candidates for office, in order to be known and to appeal to so large a number of voters, would need to be both notable and worthy.