ABSTRACT
Republican institutions were designed to preserve liberty, not only for the nation but in each state. Congress, too, has lawyers as able and as devoted to the republic as any in the executive branch. Congress can delegate to its committees the important power to investigate, to report, and to recommend. Austria, Italy, and the German Federal Republic all assign to courts the task of securing democratic institutions as much as that of protecting human rights. In France, the Conseil Constitutionnel was created specifically to decide disputes between the parliament and General De Gaulle's presidency, and only after 1971 began to review statutes for compliance with substantive rights. The administration, however, has objectives for security assistance that it considers more important than human rights. Its reports could be expected to gloss over abuses that would disqualify a recipient whom the administration wishes to support, for instance in Central America.
