Tensions of American Federal Democracy: Fragmentation of the State PDF
Preview Tensions of American Federal Democracy: Fragmentation of the State
‘Strangely, American federalism has been largely absent from American political development scholarship. Jared Sonnicksen’s insightful, stimulating, and ambitious book represents a significant contribution to filling this gap. Building on the concept of immanent fragmentation as an institutional reality and regulative idea, this innovative account of American federal democracy “in” and “through” time has a lot to offer, for students of American politics and comparative federalism alike.’ Jörg Broschek, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Comparative Federalism and Multilevel Governance, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada TENSIONS OF AMERICAN FEDERAL DEMOCRACY Tensions of American Federal Democracy uses an original analytical framework combined with comparative perspectives – including those of other modern federal democracies – to explore the jigsaw puzzle that is the state of American federal democracy. The USA has a complex political system prone to “divided government”, which has become highly polarized in recent years. The reasons for this extend further and deeper than party diversification or rising populism. This book provides an original contribution encompassing the US polity and its overall development. The author explores how the US constitution has predisposed branches and levels of government to multiple forms of separation of power and constituency; and how developments in democratic and federal government over time have fostered more competition, diffusion, and decoupling, despite earlier trends to more cross-branch and cross-level cooperation. The book thus addresses a multifaceted inquiry, interro- gating and conceptualizing the connections between institutions, ideas, and political development, while exploring the interlinkage between the institutional param- eters of multidimensional division of powers, constitutional political ideas and their contestation, and the limitation of the state in the US federal democratic system. This book will appeal to students and scholars of political science, American government and constitutional politics, federalism, comparative politics, and political theory. Jared Sonnicksen is a senior researcher in the Institute for Political Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany. Federalism Studies Series Editor: Soren Dosenrode The end of the Cold War profoundly altered the dynamics between and within the various states in Europe and the rest of the World, resulting in a resurgence of inter- est in the concept of federalism. This shift in balance has been further fuelled by the increase in the number of conflicts arising from the disaffection of the diverse ethnic or religious minorities residing within these states (e.g. Sudan, Iraq). Globalization is forcing governments not only to work together, but also to reconsider their inter- nal roles as guarantors of economic growth, with regions playing the major part. Federalism Studies offers academics a complete and in-depth understanding of fed- eralism and intergovernmental relations in historical, theoretical and comparative contexts. Intended to be international and interdisciplinary in scope, the books in the series are designed to build a common framework for the constructive analysis of federalism. Contributions are welcome on topics which explore federalism as a theory; as a political system and as a form of conflict management. Federalism, Secession and International Recognition Regime Iraqi Kurdistan Alex Danilovich Comparative Paradiplomacy Jorge A. Schiavon Tensions of American Federal Democracy Fragmentation of the State Jared Sonnicksen For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/ Federalism-Studies/book-series/FEDSTUD TENSIONS OF AMERICAN FEDERAL DEMOCRACY Fragmentation of the State Jared Sonnicksen Cover image: © Getty Images First published 2022 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 Jared Sonnicksen The right of Jared Sonnicksen to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Sonnicksen, Jared, 1978- author. Title: Tensions of American federal democracy : fragmentation of the state / Jared Sonnicksen. Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | Series: Federalism studies | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021039806 (print) | LCCN 2021039807 (ebook) | ISBN 9781032067452 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032067445 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003203674 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Federal government--United States. | Divided government--United States. | Democracy--United States. Classification: LCC JK325 .S68 2022 (print) | LCC JK325 (ebook) | DDC 320.473--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021039806 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021039807 ISBN: 978-1-032-06745-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-06744-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-20367-4 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003203674 Typeset in Bembo by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive) To Michaela, Julius, and Samuel CONTENTS List of figures x Acknowledgments xi Prologue xiii 1 Introduction: exploring the limited state 1 2 Towards an analytical framework 24 3 Constitutional immanence in the USA 62 4 The state of American federal democracy 104 5 Democratic divided government 141 6 Multilevel divided government 169 7 Politics of the Constitution 205 8 Conclusion: the decoupled polity 242 Epilogue 253 Index 256
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