When governments become large, voters cannot exercise close

Hearken to the words of Maggie Gallagher, who warns us with a voice as sharp as a prophet’s cry: “When governments become large, voters cannot exercise close oversight, otherwise known as political power.” In this saying is a truth that echoes through the centuries: that the might of the people is not measured by their numbers alone, but by their nearness to the rulers who govern them. When power swells beyond the grasp of ordinary men and women, it ceases to be the people’s servant and becomes their master.

The origin of these words lies in the eternal struggle between liberty and authority. For as states grow vast, their workings become tangled in bureaucracy, their leaders distant, and their actions hidden behind walls of secrecy. The common citizen, whose voice was once a mighty call in the town square, becomes but a whisper drowned in the roar of institutions. Gallagher warns us that this loss of oversight is not a mere inconvenience; it is the erosion of political power itself, the very lifeblood of democracy.

History is filled with such lessons. Consider the fall of the Roman Republic. In its early days, when Rome was but a city-state, the people could gather in assemblies, cast their votes, and keep their magistrates accountable. But as the Republic expanded into an empire stretching across continents, the distance between citizen and ruler grew vast. The Senate was corrupted, the people’s voice diluted, and emperors rose who answered to no one. Thus, a nation once ruled by the many became the dominion of the few. The lesson of Rome is the lesson of Gallagher: when the state grows too mighty, the citizen becomes too small.

These words are not meant only for the halls of kings and parliaments. They are a warning to us all, for tyranny is not always born in chains and whips; it is born in neglect, when people cease to watch, to question, to hold their leaders accountable. A large government, unobserved, becomes like a giant in shadow—its steps shake the earth, but no one knows in which direction it walks. And when the people no longer exercise their power, they soon find they have none left to wield.

The meaning is clear: true political power belongs not to institutions, but to citizens who are vigilant, engaged, and unafraid to speak. To surrender that vigilance is to give away one’s inheritance. As the ancients would say, the price of liberty is eternal watchfulness. A government, however grand, must never be allowed to drift beyond the reach of its people’s eyes. For when the people cannot see, they cannot guide; and when they cannot guide, they are guided like sheep to the slaughter.

From this saying we must draw a lesson for our own lives: whether in matters of state, of community, or even of household, let not authority swell unchecked. Watch closely those who lead you, demand transparency, and do not be lulled into silence by comfort or fear. For power, like fire, can warm when tended but will consume when abandoned. To preserve freedom, each generation must guard it with diligence, lest it vanish like smoke in the wind.

Practically, this means participating—not only in elections, but in the daily life of civic duty. Attend meetings, question decisions, write, speak, and stand as watchmen over the towers of power. Support leaders who serve with humility, and remove those who hide in secrecy. Do not say, “It is too vast for me to change,” for empires have fallen by the hand of one citizen’s courage. Like Rome’s tribunes, or the patriots of revolutions past, remember that vigilance is not the burden of the few but the duty of all.

So let this truth be engraved upon your hearts: when governments become large, beware, for the people’s sight grows dim. But if the people themselves grow large in courage, in vigilance, and in unity, then no government, however vast, can ever strip them of their rightful political power. For it is written in the annals of history and in the hearts of the wise: power belongs ever to the people who refuse to let it go.