Abstract
The American public retains a genuine affection for the idea of grass-roots government. The Republican party has failed, despite conscientious effort, to use this sentiment as a lever to strengthen state and local and limit national power. Federalism weakened political parties from the start, but the national party organization has not become stronger along with the national government. The Republican party has ap parently been too weak to brake centralization at the national level, but itself too decentralized to strengthen local govern ment. Grants-in-aid have made the subordinate level stronger, but at the same time they have depoliticized it. Can a states' rights party survive only if it advocates a federal subsidy for local government and local politics?
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