hey there welcome back to heimler's history in this video we're continuing to look at the required foundational documents for ap government and that means it's time to talk about federalist 51 so if you're ready to get the brain cows milk separation of power style let's get to it so right out of the gate let's begin with the central and most famous passage in this essay written by james madison what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature if men were angels no government would be necessary if angels were to govern men neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary so here you get a real sense of madison's opinion of humankind like if people were angels we wouldn't even need a government everybody would just act right but people are not angels in madison's estimation human beings are a lot less like angels and more like selfish sentient turds dressed up in clothes so in light of that human beings need a government and that government is there to protect the liberty of the people and so supposing we agree on that the next question is how do we create a government that both has the power to protect liberty while at the same time does not have enough power to destroy liberty madison says it this way in framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this you must first enable the government to control the governed and in the next place oblige it to control itself so what's the answer how do you create a government that is both powerful and yet not too powerful madison's answer the separation of powers and checks and balances and this manner of restricting power cannot be imposed upon the branches of government externally rather the defects must be supplied by so contriving the interior structure of the government as that its several constituent parts may by their mutual relations be the means of keeping each other in their proper places so the different branches of government must be created in such a way that they balance and check each other's power so how would such a government look well first madison says it is evident that each department should have a will of its own and consequently should be so constituted that the members of each should have as little agency as possible in the appointment of the members of the others he says each branch needs as much power independent of the others as possible so they can't go around messing at each other's business and that that power needs to be basically equal between the three branches but there is an objection here if you look at the constitution it's pretty clear that a disproportionate amount of power is put into the hands of the legislative branch which is to say the congress and look that's exactly as it should be since its congress which directly represents the voice of the people so if we're wanting to keep things equal power wise what are you going to do to this beefy legislature over here you're going to have to divide that power too the remedy for this inconveniency is to divide the legislature into different branches and to render them by different modes of election and different principles of action as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions and their common dependence on society will admit so how do we keep the legislature from having too much power you divide its power into two which is exactly what the constitution did congress is divided into a bicameral legislature which is composed both of the house and the senate each of which holds a portion of the legislative power if your heart is already beating fast at all that subdivision of power well then madison goes even further and keeps chopping in the compound republic of america the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments so not only is the federal government's power divided among the branches power is then further divided between the national government and the state governments which is a system of governance called federalism so with power divided in a portion to so many different actors liberty will necessarily be upheld even though the constitution is placing more power in the hands of the federal government than there was under the articles of confederation but if you are not convinced that this division of power will keep the government's power in its proper bounds the constitution also provides a system of checks and balances through which each branch can check the power of the others so for example the executive branch can check the legislative branch by vetoing laws the legislative branch can check the executive branch by its powers of impeachment and removal from office the judicial branch can check the other two branches by ruling on the constitutionality of laws and executive actions those are only a few examples but the point is each branch has the power to restrain the power of the other branches and that in madison's estimation provides what he calls a double security of protection for the liberty of the people and then madison spends the rest of his essay talking again like he did in federalist 10 about the dangers of factions he returns to the same conclusion the more factions there are the less able any one of them will be to dominate the rest and so in the case of factions just like in the separation of powers in the government a single principle prevails ambition must be made to counteract ambition in other words we don't have angels governing us nor are we ourselves angels rather people and governments always seek to preserve their own interests against the interests of everyone else and that means the best expedient to liberty given our corrupted human nature is to set all our ambitions against each other and in that way tyranny cannot be entertained because compromise and concession will be required to get anything done okay that's what you need to know about federalist 51 for the ap government curriculum here's some more videos over here on the foundational documents and if you need more help with the content of unit one you can watch these videos right here click right here to grab my view packet which will help you get an a in your class and a five on your exam in may that's all i got heimler out