Madisonian democracy, as James Madison himself propounded it and as it has subsequently become to be practiced in the United States, has been viewed as different from the democratic theory developed by the French philosopher Marquis de Condorcet and the many subsequent scholars of social choice working in Condorcet’s wake. A letter that Madison wrote late in life, however, shows that Madison comprehended and embraced Condorcet’s insights on the mathematics of majority rule. Recognizing the significance of this letter should shape not only our understanding of Madison’s own political thought but also our ideas about the ongoing evolution of Madisonian democracy in America.
Madison’s letter described a Condorcet-based electoral system that, if put into effect, would enable election results to achieve what Madison termed “the real preference of the Voters.” Adopting this electoral system, moreover, would protect Madisonian democracy from the threat of an authoritarian demagogue who is able to prevail currently by first winning a partisan primary and then being more popular than the opposing party’s nominee. Madison’s Condorcet-based system, by contrast, would enable a third consensus-building candidate, who is unable to beat the authoritarian demagogue within their party’s primary, to demonstrate that a majority of the whole electorate’s voters prefer that third candidate to either major-party nominee.