The prolog to American participatory (domestic) policy-making was spoken and written in England (and to an extent in North America as well) 1640 - 1660. At that time Parliament created the New Model Army to defeat King Charles I. That army was drawn from a broad spectrum of free men and was responsive to ideas proposed by radical writings of men like John Lilburne, John Amos Comenius, Abiezer Coppe, George Fox, Thomas Hobbes, John Saltmarsh and Gerrard Winstanley. Englishmen were infused by the inner light, the sense of the meeting and of Christ rising in the sons and daughters of God. Parliament had rallied the common people against the King. But Parliament could not dismiss the people's army once the people demanded more than the landowners were willing to grant.

John Saltmarsh succinctly made the case for policy being made not merely for  the people but by  the people as well:

       ... the interest of the people in Christ's kingdom is not only an interest of ...                 submission but of consultation, of debating, counselling, prophesying, voting.
        (Christopher Hill (1972) THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN, 47 , n. 10.)

The common people of England lost: first to the future Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell and then to the restored Stuart kings. But the demand by the people to help make policy would be repeated by Englishmen more forcefully in the friendlier air of North America.

Britain's non-consultative way of raising imperial revenues provoked secession in 1776 by 13 north American colonies. The rebels' first foreign alliance, with France, defeated Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781. The new Federal Government of 1789 inherited from the Confederation the French Alliance. This included an obligation to  protect France's island possessions in the Caribbean. America soon split into Hamiltonian (pro-British) and Jeffersonian (pro-French) parties.

In 1796 George Washington announced that he would not stand for a third term as President of the United States. His Farewell Address, largely drafted by Alexander Hamilton, urged America to have as little political connection as possible with any other nation. National emergencies might call for alliances. But alliances must be temporary, never permanent. This "testament" was the first authoritative statement of America's independent foreign policy. It was non-consultative in origin.

In 1798 Dr George Logan, prominent Quaker of Philadelphia, went to Paris on a private mission to head off war. For his pains he was snubbed by former President Washington, rebuked by Secretary of State Timothy Pickering and had a dubious, repressive Federal law named for him. That law punishes with fines and imprisonment any American who corresponds without official authorization with a foreign government on a matter in dispute with the United States. This law remains on the books, though it has never been successfully enforced.

The Convention of Mortefontaine which averted war with France was innovative. For the three person delegation which negotiated the agreement was led by Oliver Ellsworth, erstwhile Chief Justice of the United States, supported by William Davie, outgoing Governor of North Carolina.

The "splendid little war" of 1898 rewarded the U.S. with Cuba (temporarily), Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam. Republican President William McKinley ended that war through a non-traditional negotiating team. Peace Commission leader was outgoing Secretary of State Judge William Day, aided by former Minister to Britain, then then private citizen, Whitelaw Reid of the the New York TRIBUNE plus three U.S. Senators: George Gray, (D) of Delaware and Republicans Cushman Davis of Minnesota and William Frye of Maine.