Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State to Preserve the Republic offers a lesson in preserving the republic by returning power to the states from the federal government. As a method of addressing state differences and preventing a new civil war, William L. Kovacs makes proposals that are central to important discussions about what divides or unites the nation.
Kovacs avoids the usual method too many authors employ of critiquing current events to focus on the heart of solutions that can preserve the democratic process and freedoms. His wide-ranging proposal of how to restructure America offers a heady blend of powerful ideas married to practical considerations of just how federal power may be rolled back and transferred to state control.
This proposal of devolving and moving power structures is no idealistic theory or easy venture, but documents a well-reasoned approach that students of civics and American politics and history would do well to debate and consider.
Chapters offer many specific historical examples of the abuse of power, policies that hide agendas to control society, and the transformation of all democratic institutions to better achieve the ultimate goals of managing, not controlling, political and social structures:
If Congress is to reclaim its role as the nation’s lawmaker, it must reclaim its legislative authority over spending, emergencies, and wars. If Congress begins to reclaim these powers, it will realize the federal government, as structured, is too big and too complex to manage all the laws, policies, and programs it has accumulated over the last century. When it does, it will seek to form a governing structure that allows the federal government to manage issues of a genuine national and international nature and transfer domestic matters to the respective states. At that time, discussion over the devolution of power to the states will begin.
Kovacs provides a reasoned assessment of political and social influences, the decaying state of modern America, and how the revised status of the federal government may return it to being an entity the people trust.
All these topics and more, supported by reasoned historical and political analysis and facts, make Devolution of Power a highly recommended, powerful survey that should take its place at the top of political science reading groups, classrooms, and individuals interested in the nature and future of America.
Libraries will want to acquire and recommend Devolution of Power as not just a study in American ideals and structure, but a proactive, positive statement of formulating a new direction for the nation, detailing exactly how to get there.
Devolution of Power
William L. Kovacs
Paperback-Press/A & S Publishing
9781960499790, $9.99 Paperback/$2.99 eBook
