One(?) Nation Over-Extended

23 Pages Posted: 12 Jan 2014

See all articles by Gary Lawson

Gary Lawson

Boston University School of Law

Date Written: January 10, 2014

Abstract

The conventional wisdom prior to the founding was that republics needed to be small. The conventional wisdom today is that James Madison, and the example of the United States, proves this to be mistaken. But what if Madison was actually wrong and Montesquieu was right? In this article, I consider whether the United States has gotten too big for its Constitution, whether this massive size contributes to political dysfunction, and what might be done to remedy the problem if there is indeed a problem. I suggest that size can increase rather than decrease the dangers of faction because the increased returns from control over a large territory can swamp the transaction costs of building a winning coalition. The obvious solutions are a decrease in the size of the national government, an increase in the costs of constructing winning factional coalitions, or a breakup of the United States into smaller, more manageable units. The first and second options are unfeasible, and the third (secession) is unconstitutional even if feasible.

Keywords: secession

Suggested Citation

Lawson, Gary, One(?) Nation Over-Extended (January 10, 2014). Boston Univ. School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 14-3, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2377450 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2377450

Gary Lawson (Contact Author)

Boston University School of Law ( email )

765 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
United States
617-353-3812 (Phone)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
142
Abstract Views
2,148
Rank
368,861
PlumX Metrics