Even before the U.S. Constitution was ratified, there were numerous calls for changes that would make it “more perfect” in some respect—more representative, more democratic, more protective of individual liberties. Rather than offering piecemeal reform proposals, Stephen Legomsky argues in Reimagining the American Union that our current constitutional system's undemocratic features are so pervasive that “the national interest of the United States would be better served by a two-layer (national and local government) unitary system than by the current three-layer (national, state, and local) federation” (1). He identifies numerous current undemocratic, countermajoritarian institutions and processes that undercut political equality and majority rule, placing state governments at the root of these problems. He also laments the fiscal waste involved in maintaining three levels of government when two would suffice. Eliminating state governments and reassigning their powers to the national government or local governments, he argues, would remedy these problems and yield a political system more representative of and responsive to majority viewpoints while also retaining some beneficial local control over decision-making.

Shifting to a unitary government is an exceedingly tall order, Legomsky understands, calling the book a &ld