Question

What is madison's view of the inherent power potentials of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government? To what does madison attribute the potential power of these branches of government?

Answer 1

The Madisonian model designs a structure of government in which power is divided in three independent branches: legislative, executive and judicial. The main aim is to keep power balanced. Each of the powers can check on the others and prevent that they exceed their functions. None of the three powers could gather such a large amount of power to rule over the others, without being punished. Hence tyranny cannot be imposed.

All this ideas regarding the division of powers and the efficiency of this system on the control of tyranny, come from the The Spirit of the Laws (1748), written by the French philosopher Montesquieu.