The United States Capitol Building opened its doors in November of 1800 to house the very same institution it still houses today—the bicameral U.S. Congress created by our Constitution. No other advanced society can claim that level of political stability over the course of that 220-year period. The arrangement of powers in even the exceptionally steady British regime has gone through dramatic transformations unlike anything we have experienced in America over this time, and most other relatively stable societies (like the nations of Western Europe, Russia, China, Japan, and others) have gone through several fundamental changes of government through conquest, revolution, or political upheaval.
Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and the editor of National Affairs. He is the author of several books, including American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again.
