Government is Incomplete Conquest

... power, and prestige almost never arise. And when they do arise, it is only at the margins of political debate. In those rare instances when an existing political order is challenged, such things as populist movements and "color revolutions," elites almost always find ways to diffuse them. There may be excellent reasons why the state of conquest is almost never challenged. Yet the fact is that it very rarely is challenged. Government everywhere, even in democracies, is not really about consent ...