Political power is best utilized not when it is held by a cadre of few over the people, but when it is stewarded and distributed — so that families and communities can decide what is truly best for themselves and their society.
The ultimate goal of stewardship in government is to make power local again — and to make leaders teachers rather than rulers.
Push decisions to the most local level that can make them. Real change grows in households and neighborhoods first, then towns, then states.
Open books. Plain-language laws. Term-limited service. Power borrowed from the many must be visible to them and returned to them.
True leaders do not rule; they inspire and they teach. The best officeholders measure success by how soon their office can be made unnecessary.
The real power lives with the people — it comes from the change they make in their own lives. Authority is borrowed from the many and must be returned. Power is not seized from above; it is reclaimed by those who choose to live as stewards and teach others to do the same.
"The greatest, most powerful act of sedition is to become more self-reliant."
— Bill Mollison, co-founder of permaculture