The United States and the Dilemmas of Political Control

Perkins, Whitney T., The United States and the Dilemmas of Political Control, (Study done for the United States-Puerto Rico Commission on the Status of Puerto Rico), Unknown binding, August, 1965.

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Extract (pp. 2-3):

The central principle of American political belief is that the government derives legitimacy from the consent of the governed. This is a subversive and divisive idea, an invitation to revolution, incompatible, one might suppose, with successful government of a vast and diverse state. But it has been sufficiently achieved in the Constitution and practice of the United States to have become on the whole a source of strength. It can dissolve empires, but it can also be a potent, attractive and adhesive force for the nation that can exemplify it.