ABSTRACT
No nation should be subject to the whims of its rulers. Impulsiveness and political power are always a dangerous pair, no matter if the responsibility for governing rests with a king, a representative assembly, or with the people directly. Historically, however, the American sentiment toward such restraining agencies has not been gratitude. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book relates the history behind a constitutional amendment that, more than any act to date, symbolizes America's traditional resentment of political constraints. Not politics but a simple curiosity motivated the author's initial inquiry into the Seventeenth Amendment, which in 1913 transferred the election of United States senators from state legislatures directly to the people. The idea of direct popular rule is at least as old as ancient Athens, but only with technological achievements of the last century has it become practicable to attempt it in political entities larger than city-state.
