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Hamilton writes, “If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource left but in the exertions of that original right of self-defence, which is paramount to all positive forms of government.” Federalist Papers, #28, p. 178. Ironically, Hobbes espouses a broader right—that of self-preservation—even in spite of the sovereignty that he presumes should go with the monarch. Whereas self-defense is largely limited to repelling attack, self-preservation includes the right to sustenance, including food, shelter and medical care. Madison recognizes this right as “the great principle of self-preservation.” Federalist Papers, #43, p. 297. One might say that this right or principle is in the right of life in “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The right to survive is antipodal to the state of nature, where life is dog-eat-dog. According to Madison, “the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger” in the state of nature. Federalist #51. So too, the weak individual is not secured against hunger and sickness, or homelessness.  Such life is, according to Thomas Hobbes, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”  Leviathan. So we look to government not only to further our happiness, but also to provide a net below which lies the raw state of nature.  This is essentially what government is for; human nature has a penchant for returning to nature, so governmental institutions must use coercion to sustain the social contract.
Madison looked to the State Governments to enact laws in fulfillment of this principle. Whereas the powers “delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government, are few and defined,” those “which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negociation, [sic] and foreign commerce,” … the “powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects, which … concern the lives, liberties and properties of the people.” Federalist Papers, #45, p. 313. To the extent that the federal government is at all involved in public housing, food stamps and health-insurance, Madison would say that that government has encroached on the prerogatives of the States. He might conclude, moreover, that the balance of power in federalism between the general and State governments has been severely compromised or lost. Madison assumed that the State governments would be better administered than would the federal government, and that the people would side with their respective States.  To the extent that these undergirding assumptions are invalid, the federal balance is at risk.  To what harm?

The loss of the checks enabled by the balance of federalism means that the more powerful government can more easily act tyrannically at the expense of our liberties.  In other words, we can expect further encroachments by the federal government.  This is at the expense not only of our liberties, but of the inherent diversity that exists within the United States, which is an empire-scale union of republics.  We forget what we are at our own peril. Sadly, Madison assumed that the people would be ever vigilant in protecting the balance of federalism. Without this vigilance and electoral political power, federalism itself, as well as its checks and balance, is doomed.  It is, one might contend, already a fait accompli.

See: The Federalist, ed. Jacob E. Cooke, Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan Press, 1961.