Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail

by Ray Dalio

As with all new countries and dynasties, the US went through the usual revolution and post-revolution process in which it created a new domestic order as 1) a coordinated group of strong leaders fought to gain control, 2) that group won and consolidated control, 3) the new leadership had a vision supported by the population, but 4) it split into factions that had conflicts over how the government should work to implement that vision. Eventually, these factions 5) figured out the system for control and laid it out in agreements (in the US case, at first in the Articles of Confederation and then in the Constitution), 6) set up the parts of government (e.g., the money and credit system, the legal system, the legislative systems, the military, etc.), and 7) put people in jobs and made it work well. The US did these things in a uniquely peaceful way through negotiations, near-total respect for agreements, and good designs for governance that gave it a great start.