By tracing the 400-year evolution of the legal, political and operational dimensions of American federalism and its intergovernmental relationships, the author presents a clear view of the difficulties confronting this form of governance. Both a history of American federalism and an analysis of its current somewhat enfeebled condition, this updated edition identifies the decline of the federalist ideal with the emergence of activist government in the 1960s and its persistence despite attempted retrenchment up to the present administration. In the face of the centralizing tendencies and the overload of public expectations on the current, conflicted system, Walker argues that the rebirth of an authentic federalism based on the reformulation of traditional precepts has become a fundamental requirement for the national government to confront the challenges of the post-Cold War era.