Okay, so, sometimes in life, I can be a score-keeper - someone who keeps track of what he gives and what he gets in return. An annoying quality, to say the least, and I'm sure my wife has your sympathy, but it's made me highly attuned to when and where credit is due.
People who are in power make their arrangements in secret, largely as a way of maintaining and furthering that power.
Had it not been for slavery, the death penalty would have likely been abolished in America. Slavery became a haven for the death penalty.