ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the constitutional alternatives that are available and it explains how they came to emerge. The governance/accountability vision describes a future government whose work is performed by a mix of public, private, and civil society institutions. The conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence, economic, political, and even spiritual, is felt in every city, and every office of the Federal government. It then identifies a research agenda that may help legislators, policymakers, regulators, and citizens sort through the alternatives. The Anglo-American tradition provides highly relevant precedent for the translation of public obligations to private actors who perform public work. The shift from government to governance calls into question the potential of culture(s) to find means to account for state power when it is designedly diffused. The chapter concludes with a series of questions of what might be called 'cultural' dimensions that underlie today's constitutional choices.
