Word: equilibrium
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...that smacked of monarchism. He believed profoundly in the sovereignty of the people and in their civil rights. But he was worried that political groups tended to divide into hostile factions, and that factions eventually led to paralysis and chaos. The trick was somehow to bring rival forces into equilibrium. Hence the theory of checks and balances and the separation of powers...
After 200 years he has changed dramatically, from an 18th century Englishman to a modern African, Asian, Hispanic. But in terms of basic human nature, he remains as he was when the country began. In two centuries his equilibrium has been tested constantly in a history that includes a secession of half the country, Prohibition, a civil rights movement, burgeoning Fundamentalism and a thousand exigencies that the Constitution's framers could not possibly have foreseen. Yet, amazingly, they could foresee this character at the center of their work: the basic Enlightenment man with a capacity for explosions and a touch...
That he has survived these 200 years seems due largely to the Constitution's roominess, which has given him space to shift the furniture without destroying the house. The beauty of the Constitution is that it offers its resident a perpetual challenge to find his own equilibrium within the structure. Miraculously, to date he has managed to do that, as if he were conscious of the fact that the Constitution reflects his nature, mirroring his competing tendencies to squat adamantly and lurch suddenly. In a way, he continually rediscovers himself in that house, a brand-new American for every decade...
...intimate tale of a Southern Jewish woman (Dana Ivey) and her black chauffeur (Morgan Freeman), told in vignettes ranging from just after World War II to the era of the civil rights movement. This little gem echoes decades of social change yet never loses focus on the peculiar equilibrium between servant and served. It reaches a peak when the old woman goes to a banquet honoring Martin Luther King Jr. -- an event her liberal but conformist | businessman son (Ray Gill) refuses to attend -- and cannot quite bring herself to invite the driver to accompany her until the moment they reach...
...added that few schools can meet the standards of financial equilibrium set by Cambridge Associates, which include a balanced budget, and equal annual growth rate for income and expenditures...