"It's a Republic, if you can keep it," Benjamin Franklin famously quipped about the new nation he helped establish. Franklin meant that the framers created a government designed to have just enough centralized power to make government effective, without putting too much power in any one place. It's a delicate balance: too little power, and chaos reigns; too much, and rulers tend to get autocratic.
Impeachment is intended to be the ultimate shield against autocracy and used sparingly. But in the past 20 years or so, America has seen two divisive presidents impeached but not removed from office, suggesting that something is out of balance.
And something is.
The most successful governments around the world have two main characteristics that help them maintain their democratic stability: institutions and norms.
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