Reimagining the American Union challenges readers to imagine an America without state government. No longer a union of arbitrarily constructed states, the country would become a union of its people. The first book ever to argue for abolishing state government in the US, it exposes state government as the root cause of the gravest threats to American democracy. Some of those threats are baked into the Constitution; others are the product of state legislatures abusing their already-constitutionally-outsized powers through gerrymanders, voter suppression schemes, and other less-publicized manipulations that all too often purposefully target African-American and other minority voters. Reimagining the American Union goes on to demonstrate how having three levels of legislative bodies (national, state, and local) – and three levels of taxation, bureaucracy, and regulation – wastes taxpayer money and pointlessly burdens the citizenry. Two levels of government – national and local – would do just fine. After debunking the offsetting benefits typically claimed for state government, the book concludes with a portrait of what a new, unitary American republic might look like.

‘Can you imagine the USA without the States? Stephen Legomsky overwhelms the reader with this original, mind-blowing, and rarely discussed idea. A timely, novel, and provocative book for anyone troubled by the crisis of American democracy, with implications far beyond the U.S. Professor Legomsky is three in one: a visionary, a constitutional designer, and a policy planner. An intellectual ice-breaker!’

Liav Orgad - European University Institute, author of A Liberal Theory of Majority Rights

‘In this brilliant thought experiment, as in all his scholarship and congressional testimony, Professor Legomsky writes clearly, frankly, logically and in a balanced way. We can't ask for a better guide to think through what governance structure is best for America well into her third century.’

Andrew I. Schoenholtz - Georgetown University Law Center

‘Steve Legomsky is remarkable in the way he encourages us to think outside the box. In this groundbreaking book, he plants an idea, laying the seeds for changing public attitudes toward state government. While its message is primarily for the USA, it speaks to all federal countries using constitutional structures developed in centuries past and outdated.’

Kim Rubenstein - University of Canberra and National University of Australia, co-series editor of the Cambridge University Press series Connecting International with Public Law

‘This pathbreaking book is an indispensable thought experiment to anyone thinking or teaching creatively about the allocation of power in our federalized constitutional order. It is a book I wish I had read decades ago at the start of my academic career, and I will incorporate it into my teaching and research going forward.’

Theodore Ruger - Professor and former Dean, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School