what are "free institutions" as commonly understood in America?

Question

When looking through governmental treatises, documents, and studies, I often see this term, but cannot find a definition for it. I don't know what they mean - different articles seem to use this term in different ways.

Answer 1

In modern America, most people have never heard the term 'free institutions'. Try reading other works by those who used the term.

Answer 2

To some extent, that's rhetoric, like references to liberty and so on. But I think that it could mean something substantive as well, like institutions that exist independent of government or at least political party interference. A good example might be the Federal Reserve system in the United States, which is quasi-governmental but can't be interfered with by the government in power.