The advent of governmental systems based on social contracts is one way humans confirm their worldly supremacy. Lindbom claims that man rejects the divine power of God by instilling himself with the ability to govern and vote. Unfortunately, man lacks identity by separating himself from God, and so he must define in a universal fashion what existence means. Through historical reference, Lindbom tracks how the City of God and the secular City of Man have torn away from each other. Beyond constitutional governing systems, Lindbom sees the industrial revolution as another major factor in man's modern fall from grace.
Development is a manifestation of the forgetting process for humans in the secular world.
The meaninglessness of our existence without God's presence causes man to preoccupy himself in progressing and bettering the secular world around him. However, instead of moving forward, Lindbom claims we are falling further away from the ultimate goal which is the City of God. Although Lindbom makes some very interesting points about the nature of liberty and majority rule in democracies, overall his claims fall short of their initial, lofty goal. Lindbom makes the elegant association between the urges of biblical man and the ego driven temptations of modern humans towards greater political power. Unfortunately, this kind of analysis should be limited to college literature classes and not used as argumentative claims in political science.