I’ve been wrestling with issues of control vs. stewardship, especially in the management of the weblog, at OpenSpaceWorld.ORG, seeking to balance the power and need to technically control the site and a strong desire to share and open the site as much as I can. I’m fascinated by Harvey Mansfield in the Weekly Standard, a little bit of Constitutional history, and the mutuality of executive power (discretion) and community interest (law)…
In combining law and discretion, the Framers of the Constitution made a deliberate departure from the sorry history of previous republics that alternated between anarchy and tyranny. The Federalist Papers, the most authoritative source for understanding the thinking of the Framers, make it clear that republicans had gone astray because they had overconfidently ignored the necessities that all governments face and had tried to wish away the advantages of size, power, flexibility, foresight, and prudence that monarchies may offer. In rejecting monarchy because it was unsafe, republicans had forgotten that it might also be effective. The Framers made a strong executive in order to have both power and security, and they took note of emergency occasions when more power gives more security.
via a comment at Dave Pollard on Leadership and Americans