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This book proposes a radical reorganization of political and electoral power to address the current political imbalance between urban and rural populations in the United States. Hogan argues that, despite being smaller in population, a "financialist-ruralist coalition" has effectively used the Constitution-especially equal representation in the Senate-to create an anti-urban "vetocracy." This political imbalance protects the interests of the financial elite and rural cultural conservatives, while effectively blocking urban interests, particularly regarding the adoption of a broad range of structural reforms and progressive policy preferences. By re-dividing many of the largest federated states into smaller city-states, the book posits, the United States would reduce the ability of non-urban interests to control the Senate. This would allow an empowered urbanite alliance to pass the forward-looking legislation the nation needs to remain internationally competitive in the coming decades.
List of contents
Chapter 1: The Third Founding of American Democracy.- Chapter 2: A Corporatist-Ruralist Vetocracy.- Chapter 3: The Role of Cities in Global History.- Chapter 4: America's Urban History.- Chapter 5: First-Wave Structural Reforms: The Adoption of City-States.- Chapter 6: Second-Wave Structural Reforms: The Constitution.- Chapter 7: City-State Policy Agenda.- Chapter 8: Urban Livability Agenda.- Chapter 9: A More Perfect Union.
About the author
Thor Hogan is a Professor of Politics and Environmental Sustainability at Earlham College, USA.
