The Federalist Papers

About the book

Hamilton, Madison, and Jay address the people of New York in essays supporting ratification of the proposed United States Constitution. Writing as Publius, they examine the weaknesses of the existing confederation and explain the case for a stronger union. Questions of faction, representation, divided authority, executive energy, and judicial independence connect detailed institutional arrangements with competing assumptions about human behaviour. The essays are interventions in a political dispute, so their explanations also work to answer objections and persuade uncertain readers. Reading them together reveals both the breadth of the constitutional design and the pressure of defending it in public. Their continuing interest lies in the attempt to construct durable institutions from an unsentimental recognition that ambition, disagreement, and the pursuit of advantage will persist within political life.

• Constitutional design
• Power and restraint
• Political persuasion

Why read it

For an extended defence of constitutional arrangements that connects practical institutions with arguments about ambition, conflict, and public authority.

Essays by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay · English text