Excerpt from Essays in Federalism

Nevertheless, the field of intergovernmental relations deserves more thorough study. It is one of the great problems of modern times. Important political and economic forces seem to be constantly pushing us toward centralization. Yet the experiences of the Germans and Russians (and the Latin American Countries described by Professor Stokes in this volume) make clear to any thoughtful observer the dangers of overcentralization.

This first volume of the Institute for Studies in Federalism at Claremont Men's College is really only a lick and a promise. It represents the efforts of a number of individual scholars to start thinking about some of the problems of federalism in their own particular fields of research. As the reader will observe, the essays are only partially connected. All do relate to the general theme of intergovernmental relations and all consider some of the advantages of decentralization. Aside from these two common threads, however, they wander off in divergent directions.

Professor Diamond's essay is perhaps the first essay on the subject of federalism as covered in The Federalist papers. He finds that the writers of The Federalist were aware of two or three advantages of decentralization but did not really take these advantages seriously. The great concern of these writers was to secure a stronger nationalgovernment. Their brilliant essays were directed almost entirely toward this end.

My own essay is a restatement of a chapter in a book which was published in 1941. It is based largely on experiences with government in this country and elsewhere during the last three decades. Many of my political scientist friends will view my conclu sions as mere repetitions of nineteenth century viewpoints o-n decentralization of government. However, I have attempted to refine and reappraise some of these advantages. It has been my hope that the essay may lead other political scientists to appraise the values of decentralization more carefully.

Professor Thomson's essay is an effort to apply some of the techniques of economic analysis to one of the -basic problems of intergovernmental relations - the optimum area problem. Professor Thomson would be the first to say that this essay is only the beginning of an exploration in this field. He has given us a brilliant example of a possible cross-fertilization of economics and political science. Again, fellow students may do much to improve and develop his thoughts.

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