Nation: THE FUTURE OF FEDERALISM

Nelson Rockefeller describes the three Godkin lectures on "The Future of Federalism" that he delivered at Harvard University last February as "the fitting together, into a theme, of the pieces of experience of a lifetime." The lectures, among the nation's most prestigious periodic lecture series, were set up in 1903 with funds contributed by friends of Edwin L. Godkin, editor of the New York Evening Post and the Nation, who died in 1902. Excerpts from Rockefeller's lectures, which constitute a revealing record of his philosophy of government and politics: On Federalism: "The critical political decisions in government are, and must be, primarily shaped and made by elected officials. It is with this particular perspective on our democratic processes that I underline my deep personal conviction that the future of freedom lies in the federal idea. I refer to the federal idea broadly as a concept of government by which a sovereign people—for their greater progress and protection—yield a portion of their sovereignty to a political system that has more than one center of sovereign power, energy and creativity.