The States’ Secret Weapon: Reclaiming the Authority to Limit Corporate Power

The States’ Secret Weapon: Reclaiming the Authority to Limit Corporate Power Healing American politics is as simple as dusting off a resource hiding in plain sight in our constitutional toolbox American democracy has taken a beating in recent years, and it’s no longer clear that our institutions can withstand the forces pressing against them. On […]

Leveraging State Balance Sheets

Leveraging State Balance Sheets In the age of federal downsizing Since early 2025, federal policy has sought to downsize the overall federal workforce, cutting federal programs and significantly reducing federal discretionary spending in the process. Much of that spending comes in the form of transfers to state governments, which in fiscal year 2024 amounted to […]

Solving the Affordability Crisis is the Key to Rebuilding Faith in Our Democracy

Solving the Affordability Crisis Is the Key to Rebuilding Faith in Our Democracy At this uniquely perilous moment for American democracy, we face two distinct yet entirely interrelated crises: an affordability crisis and a crisis of faith in government—specifically, in democracy’s ability to meet and solve the needs of the American people. Debates over who […]

Policy in Motion

POLICY IN MOTION State leadership isn’t just close to the people, it’s close to our only shot at delivering effective government, fair markets, personal freedom, and representative democracy. We’ve assembled a network of thought leaders who are excited and ready to fight to uphold America’s founding promise. Learn more about their ideas and our work […]

Message from the Founders: First Principles in the 11th Hour

Message from the Founders: FIRST PRINCIPLES IN THE 11TH HOUR Why have we started The States Forum? Let’s start by stating the obvious: The 250-year-old experiment of American democracy is in real danger. The Republican Party, in power in Washington, D.C., is working to dismantle it, and the Democratic Party, locked out of power in […]

Power-Sharing Liberalism

POWER-SHARING LIBERALISM Notes toward a new paradigm of constitutional democracy Around the globe, democracies are under strain as leaders seek to navigate a world where global conflict has destabilized borders and technology has reordered economic opportunity and cultural life. The paralysis and dysfunction of democracies in face of this crisis have led intellectuals on the […]

The Stranglehold of Interest-Group Taboos

The Stranglehold of Interest-Group Taboos The real reasons Democrats lost credibility on the issue of education—and how they can win it back Whatever else their political struggles, Democrats have almost always secured the position of being the party that voters trust more on education issues. Democrats are the party that favors higher levels of spending […]

Let’s Tidy Up State Government

Let’s Tidy Up State Government The life-changing art of identifying and eliminating policy clutter As the pandemic put millions of people out of work, states developed a backlog of unemployment insurance claims. Many governors blamed COBOL, a programming language developed in 1959 and still in widespread use. But COBOL was not the real culprit. In […]

Editor’s Note

A Double Security We titled our first issue of this journal The American Promise. As we explained last summer and have reiterated since, The American Promise is our touchstone, our core belief, our worldview. Finally and fully realizing the promise made in the Declaration of Independence and the principles that follow from it—representative democracy, personal […]