James Madison's Federalist No. 51 — the canonical defense of the Constitution's separation of powers and system of checks and balances, built on the premise that ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
Ambition counteracting ambition: Madison's key insight: 'If men were angels, no government would be necessary.' Since men are not angels, government must be designed to control governed and governors alike. The mechanism: give each branch of government the means and motives to resist encroachment by the others (bicameralism, presidential veto, judicial independence). The famous formulation: 'Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.' Madison also argues for extending the republic to include many factions — the compound republic of America makes faction control of the whole government more difficult than in a small republic. One of the most cited texts in American constitutional jurisprudence.
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