The fallacies of states' rights / Sotirios A. Barber.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barber, Sotirios A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Federal government--United States.

Federal government.

States' rights (American politics).

United States--Politics and government--Philosophy.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (245 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The idea that "states' rights" restrain national power is riding high in American judicial and popular opinion. Here, Sotirios A. Barber shows how arguments for states' rights, from the days of John C. Calhoun to the present, have offended common sense, logic, and bedrock constitutional principles. To begin with, states' rights federalism cannot possibly win the debate with national federalism owing to the very forum in which the requisite argument must occur-a national one, thanks to the Civil War-and the ordinary rules of practical argumentation. Further, the political consequences of this self-defeating logic can only hasten the loss of American sovereignty to international economic forces. Both philosophical and practical reasons compel us to consider two historical alternatives to states' rights federalism. In the federalism of John Marshall, the nation's most renowned jurist, the national government's duty to ensure security, prosperity, and other legitimate national ends must take precedence over all conflicting exercises of state power. In "process" federalism, the Constitution protects the states by securing their roles in national policy making and other national decisions. Barber opts for Marshall's federalism, but the contest is close, and his analysis takes the debate into new, fertile territory. Affirming the fundamental importance of the Preamble, Barber advocates a conception of the Constitution as a charter of positive benefits for the nation. It is not, in his view, a contract among weak separate sovereigns whose primary function is to protect people from the central government, when there are greater dangers to confront.

Contents:

Introduction: America's oldest constitutional debate

Why the states can't check national power

John Marshall and a constitution for national security and prosperity

The implications of Marshallian federalism

Why states' rights federalism is impossible to defend

John C. Calhoun's false theory of the Union

States' rights as rights only to participate in national processes

Why Marshallians should (but may not) win the states' rights debate.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674070424

0674070429

9780674067967

0674067967

OCLC:

1004875437