As Mancur Olson observed in "The Rise And Decline Of Nations," successful nations are prey to a "web of special interests" that produces calcified legislation inhibiting economic growth and liberty in support of existing special interests. By way of comparison to evolutionary biology and theories about the role of sexual reproduction in promoting resistance to parasitism, this paper looks at the role of democracy, federalism, and limited federal government powers in reducing special-interest parasitism in the American polity.