Tensions of American Federal Democracy uses an original analytical framework combined with comparative perspectives - including those of other modern federal democracies - to explore the jigsaw puzzle that is the state of American federal democracy.

Jared Sonnicksen is Chair of Political Systems at the Institute of Political Science at RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

Prologue 1. Introduction: Exploring the Limited State 2. Towards an Analytical Framework 3. Constitutional Immanence in the USA 4. The State of American Federal Democracy 5. Democratic Divided Government 6. Multilevel Divided Government 7. Politics of the Constitution 8. Conclusion: The Decoupled Polity Epilogue