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The Conversation
The Conversation
Stephen Legomsky, John S. Lehmann University Professor Emeritus, Washington University in St. Louis

A radical proposal to abolish state government and strengthen American democracy

Abolish all the states? Zoonar/Getty Images Plus

Get rid of states? Legal scholar Stephen Legomsky, who taught for 34 years at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, has just published a book, “Reimagining the American Union,” that proposes a radical idea: Abolish state government. The Conversation’s politics and democracy editor, Naomi Schalit – a former statehouse reporter herself – interviewed Legomsky about the provocative idea behind his book, in which he advocates moving most of the functions of state government down to the local level, closer to those represented and governed by it.

You propose abolishing states. Why?

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