This course will look at a variety of theoretical and practical issues linked with the decision to adopt a federal political system. Although there will certainly be attention paid to a variety of decisions by the United States Supreme Court, the readings will also include a variety of historical materials, as well as some political theory and political science in order to ask why federal systems arise in the first place and whether there is a likely instability built into any federal system that might manifest itself, in the extreme case, in attempts by sub-national units to secede from the larger federal system.
Levinson, Sanford V.