If not only blacks and whites but all sorts of distinct groups see political power as a form of rivalrous consumption, and it may be the case that they do, then we should expect more and deeper ethnic, linguistic, religious, and economic fissures, and more intense conflicts associated with them, as the size of government grows and power is consolidated at the federal level. On the other hand, if you want peace, then you should press for localism, federalism, the devolution of powers, strong property rights and constitutional protections of other individual rights, and, above all, limited government — because limited government means less to fight over in the political realm. That will not solve every problem — nothing solves every problem — and it wouldn’t necessarily have prevented the problems in Ferguson. But it will help forestall some much more significant challenges in the future.

If a town of 21,000 cannot be governed without consent, what of a country of 300 million?