Federal Principle

In The Federal Principle: A Journey Through Time in Quest of a Meaning, S. Rufus Davis undertakes a sweeping historical and conceptual exploration of federalism, one of the most durable yet contested ideas in political thought. Rather than treating federalism as a static form of government, Davis approaches it as a principle that has continually evolved across time, place, and circumstance. He begins with the covenantal roots of federal association, tracing how ancient communities forged binding compacts for defense and identity. From there, he follows federal experiments in the Hellenic world and medieval Europe, where leagues, alliances, and confederations sought to balance unity and autonomy. These early practices provided a vocabulary that later thinkers and practitioners would recast, culminating in the United States Constitution of 1787—an event that reshaped both the practice and the theory of federalism for the modern world.

Davis argues that federalism’s meaning cannot be reduced to a single model or formula. Instead, it is best understood as an adaptive principle: a way of structuring human association that continually renegotiates sovereignty, diversity, and cooperation. By examining both practice and theory—from covenants and confederations to the classic American design and its proliferating descendants—he highlights how federalism has served as a laboratory for reconciling competing demands of order and freedom. At once a historical journey and a conceptual inquiry, the book illuminates the resilience of the federal idea even as it exposes its vulnerabilities to misinterpretation and strain. Davis ultimately offers not a fixed definition but a framework for understanding federalism’s past as a guide to its potential renewal in the future—a study of enduring value for scholars of politics, law, and history.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1978.