Madisonian Separation of Powers
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Description
Madison's ideas about separation of powers and checks and balances are often located in a collection of specific texts, written during the period of the Founding. And, of course, he did have particular ideas about how the powers of the new national government ought to be allocated. But it is a mistake to take these ideas as his last word on the subject. In this essay I shall argue that what we might call Madisonian separation of powers ought not to be understood as a fixed set of institutions or rules for allocating authority among the departments of the new government. Rather, it is best seen as an attempt to set in place a set of normative and institutional processes that would permit rearranging departmental powers in light of experience. His initial ideas—those found in his Federalist essays for example—are best seen as provisional or experimental attempts to establish a new republican government, based on the best knowledge available at the time. As experience with these new institutions grew, he expected that adjustments would need to be made, but such adjustments would need to be consistent with the underlying principle of the Constitution: popular sovereignty.
Source Publication
James Madison: The Theory and Practice of Republican Government
Source Editors/Authors
Samuel Kernell
Publication Date
2003
Recommended Citation
Ferejohn, John A., "Madisonian Separation of Powers" (2003). Faculty Chapters. 536.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/536
