Nothing is more dangerous than the over-mighty State. A State that gathers all powers to itself drains initiative away from where it does most good – at the local level, at the level of the small group, the family, the individual. And the danger does not end when formal democracy – consisting of elections every few years, free, fair, and transparently honest – exists. An over-mighty State can evolve through a series of free and fair elections – even involving changes in Government – by preserving the apparatus of centralised authority untouched for whoever inherits it to use. Beware that insidious danger. The impersonal State, impervious to the passing whims and fancies of men and women practising politics, constantly threatens to arrogate to itself as much power as it can get.
