Human Nature in Government

In Federalist 51, "The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments," James Madison sums up his notion of government: "But what is government but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?" (Pole, 281) Madison's idea of government as a reflection of human nature is displayed strongly throughout all of the Federalist Papers, as he and his contributors, namely Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, spread their ideals of classic republicanism and support for the adoption of the United States Constitution over the Articles of Confederation. The authors believed that government could succeed only if that government uses a system involving the separation of powers in order to minimize tyranny and protect democracy. It can be inferred from this that the authors certainly believed man was prone to corruption and greed, and that government facilitates, and indeed is a necessity for, social interaction. Likewise, other great political theorists and authors wrote about the connection between human nature and government. In Karl Marx and Richard Engels' The Communist Manifesto, the authors argue that human nature is, in fact, nothing besides a reflection of the social values produced by certain kinds of economic organization. In John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, on the other hand, Mill discusses his concept of liberty through a Utilitarian approach, claiming that a government is only justified in exerting authority over a man's individual liberty if it is to stop a behavior that harms other people. Any other limits are violations of that person's liberty. This Utilitarian ideology necessitates a government that will produce the maximum amount of happiness, and that is an assessment heavily predicated on an accurate idea of human nature. The three aforementioned literary works, The Federalist, The Communist Manifesto, and On Liberty, all describe vastly diverse political ideologies, yet each piece displays government as a reflection on human nature.