ABSTRACT
Both advocates and critics of the European Union have compared it to a “United States of Europe.” Europeans are presently grappling with dilemmas of constitutionality and government structure similar to those weighed by the drafters of the Constitution of 1787. The vastly different historical situation of European nations today makes comparison dubious. Nonetheless, political leaders in both times and places have considered the similar issues of how much power should be centralized and how much left to national (“state” in the US) or local government.
