Federalism (SAGE Library of Political Science)

In 1968, Carl J. Friedrich, a prominent Harvard political scientist, suggested that federalism was not, as many observers then believed, an anomaly in the modern era, but rather a mode of governance that was moving to the forefront of political necessity and desirability in the second half of the twentieth century. This was a prescient observation. Federalism has become a leading mechanism for addressing problems of human diversity and political scale, both small and large. It establishes unity on the basis of consent while preserving diversity by constitutionally uniting separate political communities into a limited, but encompassing, polity.

This major reference collection, edited by one of the foremost scholars in the field, grapples with a large body of knowledge that does not neatly divide into theoretical categories and imposes a structure for the purposes of studying this complex political structure and process of governance. There is little significant consensus among scholars of federalism as to what constitutes the field and its subdivision so Federalism, a four volume set, attempts to signpost and map out the field for researchers, post-graduates and political scientists in general.

Volume I: Theories of Federalism

Volume II: Comparative Federalism

Volume III: Practices of Federalism

Volume IV: Potentials of Federalism

John Kincaid is the Robert B. and Helen S. Meyner Professor of Government and Public Service and Director of the Meyner Center for the Study of State and Local Government at Lafayette College. He also is Senior Editor of the Global Dialogue on Federalism, a joint project of the Forum of Federations and International Association of Centers for Federal Studies, and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. He is the recipient of the Daniel J. Elazar Distinguished Scholar Award from the Section on Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations of the American Political Science Association and of the Donald Stone Distinguished Scholar Award from the Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management of the American Society of Public Administration. He is the author of various works on federalism and intergovernmental relations; editor of Political Culture, Public Policy and the American States (1981); and co-editor of Competition among States and Local Governments: Efficiency and Equity in American Federalism (1991), The Covenant Connection: From Federal Theology to Modern Federalism (2000), and Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries (2005). He has also lectured and consulted on issues of federalism, intergovernmental relations, state and local government, and decentralization throughout the United States and the world.