[Stultis]

(Side note: We don't read about the other side--what President Bush said---in the liitle argument about capital punishment. I imagine he responded that America leaves it up to the individual states to decide that issue.)

I don't get a chance to talk to a lot of Europeans, and I've only discussed this topic with three (two Brits and one German). I don't know how representative this sample is, but all three had little or no prior understanding of Federalism, and found the principal rather shocking when it was explained. It just didn't seem to make any sense to them that crucial matters of governance would not be decided at the national level. (Thank God I live in America!)

[cajungirl]

I just read Founding Brothers, the John Adams Bio and am now reading American Sphinx about Jefferson. Europpeans don't have the same problem we had at the dawn of our country,,the vast size and the disparate regions. We had all these colonies, all different, all established by pretty strong people. Plus even at the beginning, our founders were looking west and south and thinking that one day the entire Americas would be US. So the idea of a central government determining all things was pretty impractical. Plus Jefferson and his Republicans were pretty much anti government anyway. But a small country, as most Europeans countries are, might make sense to have a central government. These countries also had Kings and Queens and their tradition was centralised authority.