Many of the political ideas that are now common currency were born in small, out-of-the-way places. The United States was just a collection of small colonies wh

Many of the political ideas that are now common currency were born in small, out-of-the-way places. The United States was just a collection of small colonies when they rebelled, but that rebellion coalesced some of the most radical ideas that had been brewing on the Continent into action, ideas that have been adopted in some form in places all over the world. You can go romping about through history to find other ideas that were first put into practice in places far from the centers of power, ideas considered radical at the time that later were adopted by those who became powerful. I'm not a subscriber to dialectical theory, but there is some truth in saying that new ideas that arise in response to bad circumstances often supplant prevailing wisdom. (Dialectics assumes that's always an improvement in the long run, but the evidence for that assertion is lacking in my opinion.)