The Robust Federation

Fueled by the Rehnquist Court’s unexpected rediscovery of federalism as a constitutional constraint on American governmental power and by a recent global outbreak of constitution drafting, interest in federalism has exploded in the last two decades. Federalism is now a subject routinely studied by numerous disciplines utilizing a wide variety of investigative methods. In THE ROBUST FEDERATION, Jenna Bednar, a political scientist, approaches the subject using the tools of positive political theory. Bednar’s objective is to extend and systematize the basic Madisonian insights about federal structures of governance, not so much in an elaborately formal or comprehensive mathematical model as in a set of clearly stated and interconnected principles of sound constitutional design.