On Federalism and Political Obligation

Theorists of normative political obligation have largely ignored the question of how federalism—a mixed form of government which divides and delegates political authority between multiple state actors within a single political system—affects how citizens are obligated. Instead, major theories of political obligation assume that citizens have a uniform relationship to a single state. This paper argues that to ignore the distribution of authority within a state is a mistake: federalism entails that our political obligations are divided, overlapping, and distinct; we have different obligations to the federal government than we do to our state and local governments.