Cycles of Change

Free republics endure only when state power faces firm legal limits. When public officials rule without checks, government reach expands until basic civil liberties fade away. The early architects of free government saw that human ambition moves toward raw control unless blocked by rival powers. [...]

The architects of the American constitutional system expressed recurring concerns about the concentration of power in financial and governmental institutions. These concerns emerged from direct observation of how centralized authority functioned in European monarchies and colonial administration. [...]