Changing Patterns of Institutions in Colonial Rhode Island

FAIN: RB-10108-72

University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA 52242-1320)
Sydney V. James (Project Director: June 1972 to present)

To discover and explain how one English colony in North America, failing to achieve order in two versions of its original plan of institutions, adopted a different approach in the 18th century, creating a pattern of limited government with rationalized lines of authority, providing within this framework place for a wide range of non-governmental institutions, notably private corporations and non-privileged religious societies, as well as extensive freedom for voluntary association.