ABSTRACT
The modern view of government abandoned all trust in a monolithic head of state and placed countervailing forces inside and outside the administration to check and balance its power. This concept developed from a number of factors coming together in the fullness of times and creating the right conditions for its possible growth. The English tradition of common law has an amorphous quality attached to its understanding and history, but contains enough coherent characteristics to help provide it with meaning as a powerful metaphor. The natural law provides the most important aspect of the common law and the most direct testimony to a foundation rooted within religious belief and tradition. Alongside the natural law and covenant, there stood a belief in mixed government as an important countervailing force. This form of government could check its own abuses without resorting to a rebellion or full-scale revolution to change the entire political order.
