One Year Into a Revolution? (Developments Since the Congressional Elections of November 1994)‪.‬

FOR a country born of revolution, the United States has a political system that is extraordinarily conservative and resistant to change, an objective the founders clearly had in mind when designing a constitutional regime that remains virtually unaltered after 200 years. The careful distribution of power ensures that enthusiasms of the moment are seldom translated into legislative enactments. Political fervour that sweeps periodically across the United States has been for the most part like a storm over an ocean, creating turmoil on the surface, but seldom penetrating to the deeper layers below. Because the rhetoric of "revolution" or "reform" is so rarely translated into deep-seated change, reformist movements, when they do occur, appear to observers to be especially intense. These powerful reactions reflect the recognition of the advocates themselves, either consciously or subconsciously, that an extraordinary effort is required to attain minimal results in a system intended to temper popular outbursts.