It can hardly be expected that American citizens will bring as much public spirit to their local public business as to the more stirring affairs of the whole nation; and what local patriotism there is should be confronted by no unnecessary obstacles.

If a mistake or an abuse occurs, the responsibility for it should be unmistakable and absolute, while if a reform candidate or party is victorious, they should control a machinery of government wholly sufficient for their purposes.
As soon as any attempt is made to devise a system which does concentrate responsibility and power, serious difficulties are encountered.
Concentration of responsibility can be brought about in one of two ways--either by subordinating the legislature to the executive or the executive to the legislature.

There are precedents both here and abroad in favor of each of these methods, and their comparative advantages must be briefly sketched.
The subordination of the executive to the legislature would conform to the early American political tradition.

We have usually associated executive authority with arbitrary and despotic political methods, and we have tended to assume that a legislative body was much more representative of popular opinion.

During or immediately succeeding the Revolutionary War, the legislatures of the several states were endowed with almost complete control--a control which was subject only to the constitutional bills of rights; and it has been seriously and frequently proposed to revive this complete legislative responsibility.