Sublime

Although he had securely laid the foundations of the federal government, he was still the product of his genteel Virginia past and accustomed to the rule of well-bred gentlemen such as himself. He would never have been fully at home with the brawling, roaring brand of democracy that came to dominate American politics in the era of Andrew Jackson.

But this sudden flush of power in time proved perilous for the Federalists, for they were henceforth to lack the self-restraint necessary to curtail their more dogmatic, authoritarian impulses, thus paving the way for abuses of power.

Clinton’s Libya problem encapsulated the weak point of the technocracy. The argument for expertise as the basis for political authority depends on the experts’ success at managing both their small niche and society as a whole.

Lyndon Johnson’s appointment had allowed him to bring together, in a single office, the men he had scattered through the federal bureaucracy.

Very little of the president’s social agenda had been implemented either. Congress and the Supreme Court had blocked attempts to roll back liberal social legislation. For example, in spite of opposition from socially conservative legislators, the Supreme Court made homophobia a criminal offence. Congress threw out efforts to give police officers gr

phone and automatically getting a dial tone.

When the technologies that are shaping the new millennium are considered, it is far more likely that we will see not one world government, but microgovernment, or even conditions approaching anarchy.