A Sober View of Human Nature: Federalist 10 and Factions

A Sober View of Human Nature: Federalist 10 and Factions

July 15, 2026 · 42 min · Season 7 · Episode 2

About this episode

The episode discusses James Madison's views on factions as presented in Federalist 10 and their relevance to contemporary politics.

In Federalist 10, James Madison identified what he saw as one of the greatest dangers to popular government: factions. How did he define and understand them? Does his definition and his argument still stand up today? How can, by understanding the view on this issue at the Founding, better understand our current politics? Read Federalist 10: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/federalist-no-10-3/ Read Madison’s “Consolidation”: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/consolidation/ Read Madison’s “A Candid State of Parties”: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/a-candid-state-of-parties-2/ Read Joe’s article on political parties: https://www.heritage.org/political-process/report/the-rise-and-fall-political-parties-america Find American Covenant on Amazon: https://a.co/d/00voBuXV Host: Jeff Sikkenga Executive Producer: Jeremy Gypton Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/theamericanidea Homepage: https://ashbrook.org/the-american-idea-podcast/ Thank you for being part of The American Idea community. ​​​Click to learn about how we're planning for America's 250th birthday!​ https://www.ashbrookfreedom250.org/ Follow on Twitter https://x.com/amideapodcast Follow on…

People in this episode

Host: Jeff Sikkenga

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Ashbrook Center, Heritage Foundation

Products: American Covenant

Books & works: Federalist 10, Consolidation, A Candid State of Parties

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