ABSTRACT
Students of republican government have long been concerned that the powers allocated to governments and the programs and policies that governments pursue may affect the nature of the polity. Economic and social development have constantly posed new challenges to the American political system—challenges that have engendered meaningful response on at least three distinct levels of American political life. These interrelated patterns of political change constitute macrolevel, middle-range, and microlevel adjustments to the pressures generated by socioeconomic development. Many members of the founding generation understood quite clearly that the American Revolution neither began with nor ended in the clash of arms. A massive readjustment of the basic connections of American politics had begun with William McKinley, gained scope and speed with Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, and culminated in Lyndon Johnson's Great Society.
