The Case Against the States

The fancy word is "subsidiarity." it's the principle that public functions should be performed at the lowest possible level of government -- the one closest to the citizens. The world is in a frenzy of subsidiarity at the moment. The former Soviet empire divides and subdivides into ever smaller sovereign units. In Western Europe, there is a rebellion against the "bureaucrats of Brussels," headquarters of the European Union. And here in the United States, a recurring theme of the Gingrich Ascendancy is that this or that Federal Government program should be turned over to the states. State governments, it is argued,...

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