“What is government, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?”
James Madison asks this question in one of the most iconic Federalist Papers—a series of newspaper articles explicating the Constitution that was presented to the judgment of the American people in the fall of 1787.
While they purport to explain the Constitution’s arrangement of the three branches of government, The Federalist Papers are more than a dry anatomy of political institutions.
In our new course, “The Federalist,” R.J. Pestritto treats the work as a book—a textual unity by a single author, “Publius”—and a book that is as much a work of political philosophy as it is of the narrower science of government.
As a work of political philosophy, The Federalist Papers articulate the complex account of human nature that animates the U.S. Constitution.
One of the major problems the new constitution was meant to address was the problem of conflict between the 13 states and the need for a stronger federal government to preserve the union.
Pestritto observes that many Anti-Federalist positions advocating against a strong federal government were influenced by French Enlightenment accounts of the perfectibility of human nature; as civilization progresses over time, human habits continually improve and are less prone to conflict, rendering strong government less necessary.
Publius summarizes their view in Federalist 6: