Date of Submission
Spring 2019
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Political Studies
Project Advisor 1
Walter Russell Mead
Abstract/Artist's Statement
The Founders consciously designed the American system to divide majoritarian energies, gridlock the government, and skew the political game towards vested interests and knowledgeable insiders. The result is a political system which disproportionately caters to small and intensely-motivated constituencies while raising the bar very high for majoritarian change. But, if majoritarian forces are persevering enough, if their repeated assaults are able to muster the forces needed across many places and long stretches of time, the system is able to integrate and domesticate change without breaking, and without fundamentally altering itself. Judged by its longevity, the Fortress State is the most successful mechanism for managing institutional change in a large and complex society known to man. However, given the nature of the problems of the 21st century, the conclusion of this essay questions whether the disaggregating tendencies of American institutions will serve the nation well in the new millennium.
Open Access Agreement
Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Clavier, Axel, "The Fortress State: How the American System Protects Vested Interests and the Status Quo" (2019). Senior Projects Spring 2019. 210.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2019/210
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
Included in
American Politics Commons, Comparative Politics Commons, Political Theory Commons, Public Administration Commons