In Search of the Federal Spirit

About this book

In Search of the Federal Spirit examines federal theory in the context of the new federal models that have sprung into existence since the end of the Cold War. It utilises the federal spirit as a conceptual lens through which to explore the revival of federalism in the post-Cold War era - especially in the 1990s - and it seeks to place the emergence of these new models in the theoretical context of federal state formation. By examining the approaches of five major contributors to the nature and meaning of federalism - Kenneth Wheare, William Livingston, William Riker, Carl Friedrich, and Daniel Elazar - the book identifies several different expressions of the federal spirit that together constitute its basic political values and principles rooted in liberal democracy. The book explains how and why the federal spirit can survive and prosper only in conditions of liberal democracy which allow these federal values and principles to be freely expressed. In this way the book will connect the five distinctive approaches to understanding federalism and their peculiar interpretation of the federal spirit to the emergence of the new models. This chain of reasoning leads us to look not only…