America at 250: With Trump at the helm, can the US weather the fears of its founders?

On July 4, as the United States marks 250 years of independence, the words of one its founding fathers come to mind. “An elective despotism was not the government we fought for,” writes Thomas Jefferson in Notes on the State of Virginia. Jefferson was among the authors of the US Declaration of Independence.

For Jefferson and the other founders of the United States, the survival of a free state depended upon its ability to insulate the public treasury and the rule of law from the influence of concentrated wealth.

When the executive starts behaving like a corporation, it begins to erode the foundation of a democracy – rather than serve its citizens, the government begins to exploit them, perhaps even underserve them.

Jefferson’s warning against the emergence of an “elective despotism” was an early recognition of the danger posed by the concentration of political power. Two-and-a-half centuries later, in an America led by President Donald Trump, Jefferson’s words ring true.

Can the institutional foundations of the American republic possess the resilience to withstand an elective despotism?

When in Rome: buying political power

In this context, an incident from ancient Rome, 2,000 years ago, is worth revisiting: the imperial auction of March 28, 193 - before common era, BCE.

After the assassination of the reform-minded Emperor...

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