Our Next 250 Years: Power and Control

In a free society, power must exist, but it must also be restrained. As institutions grow more complex, understanding how authority operates becomes increasingly important.

In Our Next 250 Years: Power and Control, Charles Patton examines how modern systems translate power into control. Beyond elections and formal institutions, authority now operates through technology platforms, financial systems, administrative agencies, and regulatory structures that shape decisions and influence outcomes.

These systems can expand the reach of government and private power while making accountability harder for citizens to see and understand.

Drawing on history and institutional analysis, this book explores how power functions in modern governance and why transparency, limits, and oversight remain essential to democratic stability.

Power and Control is the second volume in the Our Next 250 Years series.

Award-winning screenwriter and successful author of non-fiction and fiction.

Charles writes easy-to-read books that inform, persuade, and sometimes challenge. His work ranges from civic-minded books on citizenship to bestselling guides on Mastering Strategy, Thinking, and Extreme Leadership-and yes, even gritty, character-driven mysteries. He eked out a math degree from the University of Illinois, capped by an MBA in economics from the University of Chicago. His most practical education, however, came from the school of hard work.

Chuck lives in Orlando with his wife, near their daughter and her family. Their son and his crew of three boys are posted up north in a different time zone-unavoidable but unacceptable.