Public Opinion — Chapter XVIII The Role of Force, Patronage and Privilege

1. 1. The U.S. Constitution's checks and balances were designed to neutralize local opinion and enable national government, not to create deadlock.
2. 2. Hamilton used class privileges to build the Union, not the reverse, by attaching the passions of the gentry to national interests.
3. 3. Jefferson taught Americans to reinterpret the Constitution as a democratic instrument, a fiction that preserved the document from overthrow.
4. 4. Patronage, introduced by Jackson, unintentionally created a new governing class and stabilized the Union by weakening local attachments.
5. 5. Congress's decline stems from its lack of systematic information, forcing reliance on local impressions and logrolling.
6. 6. The three alternatives for governing large groups are force, patronage and privilege, or a highly developed system of common information and analysis.