“There is nothing more necessary and more difficult to obtain than a government that is at once strong and moderate.”Alexis de Tocqueville · Despre democrația în America · 1840 · volumul 2, partea 4, capitolul 6
Power that limits itself is the rarest and most valuable kind of power.
Tocqueville points to a structural tension: unlimited power becomes tyranny, while weak power becomes anarchy. The solution, a strong yet moderate government, is hard because the two qualities naturally contradict; power tends to expand, not to restrain itself. The mechanism that reconciles them is institutional balance: separation of powers, independent courts, civic habits. An example is a constitutional court that can strike down laws while itself being bound by strict procedures.
The card says what is hard. The next step is why it is hard. Restraint does not come from the goodwill of those in power. Left alone, power always expands, because every ruler wants more room to act. So the solution is not to ask for moderation but to build it into the structure. The trick is to give each institution a self-interest in checking the others. Think of a car: the brake does not work because the driver virtuously decides to press it, but because the pedal is physically under his foot. Likewise, an independent court strikes down laws not out of generosity, but because its role exists only there. The open question: who checks the checker?
Why it matters The line is a compass for any institutional reform: it asks not for a weak state or an authoritarian one, but for a capable one kept in check.