Epilogue

Abstract

When it comes to the who-decides questions at the local level, the states have been versatile over time, developing more and more democratic answers. At the national level, the country remains largely fixed in an eighteenth-century republican form of government, one that remains non-democratic in many ways. Are there ways in which these two different approaches to government can complement each other? The conviction of this book is that American constitutional structure cannot be understood without appreciating how the national and state governments handle it. The hope is that a greater appreciation of American federalism offers ways to improve the functioning of each side. The epilogue addresses the gap between the increasingly democratic state governments and non-democratic federal government, the role of the state and federal courts in addressing change, and the structural values of federalism and localism in creating stable and lasting change.