A Balkanized Federation

The United States’ civic narrative – the pursuit of the American Experiment in liberal democratic self-government – is the glue that holds it together. Without it, the federation has always been vulnerable to collapse because it is in reality Balkanized federation of rival regional cultures – “stateless nations” if you will – that otherwise agree on very little. 

As described in American Nations, our true regional fissures can be traced back to the contrasting ideals of the distinct European colonial cultures that first took root on the eastern and southern rims of what is now the United States, and then spread across much of the continent in mutually exclusive settlement bands, laying down the institutions, symbols and cultural norms later arrivals would encounter and, by and large, assimilate into. (Academically, this work is built on the foundations of the late cultural geographer Wilbur Zelinsky’s Doctrine of First Effective Settlement.)

The fissures between these regional cultures – the tectonic plates of our history, culture and politics – rarely respect state or even international boundaries, spilling over (or, in some cases, from) what are now the Canadian and Mexican federations. They are described in detail in American Nations, but here is a thumbnail sketch of each:

YANKEEDOM

Founded on the shores of Massachusetts Bay by radical Calvinists as a new Zion, Yankeedom has, since the outset, put great emphasis on perfecting earthly civilization through social engineering, denial of self for the common good and assimilation of outsiders. It has prized education, intellectual achievement, communal empowerment and broad citizen participation in politics and government, the latter seen as the public’s shield against the machinations of grasping aristocrats and other would-be tyrants. Since the early Puritans, it has been more comfortable with government regulation and public-sector social projects than many of the other nations, who regard the Yankee utopian streak with trepidation.