Federalism, Democracy and the Political Culture: Essays in Memory of Daniel J.Elazar

The central concerns of the late Daniel J. Elazar concerned the relation between federalism, constitutional democracy and the political culture. Stitched into this set of concepts was the concept of the covenants that extended from the world of the ancient Hebrew prophets to the founding fathers of modern America. Elazar looked very closely at post-Holocaust Israel as well post-Vietnam America. Whether dealing with King David and King Saul, or such founding fathers of the United States as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, he sought the religious as well as political foundations of democratic culture. The faces of federalism went beyond formal boundaries into establishing the limits of autocracy imposed by norms of cultural decency.