Federalism and Democracy

[Robert Justin Lipkin]

       I'm interested in any literature--in law, political science, or history--that discusses the relationship between democracy and federalism.  Specifically, I have in mind this issue. Federalism, arguably, can be reconceptualized as the relationship between two democracies or two democratic interests. Under which circumstances should one democracy's interest trump the other's? My hunch is that much of the language of federalism, to mention just one example, "dual sovereignty," is problematic, though fortunately not irreducible; indeed, conceptual clarity might be achieved by dropping this term in favor of the idea of cooperative democracies, warring democracies, take your pick. At any rate, does the literature contain any proposals for reducing our common parlance about federalism into the terms of democratic theory?

Bobby Lipkin
Widener University School of Law
Delaware