Reviewing Donald Kettl's "Divided States of America" for the Washington Post

U.S. Federalism -- the division of powers between the federal and state governments -- has been a tricky thing since the outset, leading to a horrific Civil War, enormous disparities between states in terms of social outcomes, tax burdens, and the quality of services and -- we will sadly soon learn -- possibly even pandemic awareness and survival.

Readers of American Nations know the Founders didn't really have a chance in the matter. The regional cultures and the states they controlled were so different from one another -- a slaveholding oligarchy in the Deep South had completely different political and ideological goals than the descendants of the Puritans, with their fear of aristocracy and demand for hyper-local control -- that there would never have been a United States had they not created a very great compromise. But is it an institution that can still hold us together, or is it destined to drive us apart for good?

Donald Kettl, a political scientist at the University of Texas in Austin, has taken up these questions in his timely new book, The Divided States of America: Why Federalism Doesn't Work. I reviewed it for the Washington Post and you can read my thoughts on it there.