Daniel Squadron — The Fourth Branch: How State Government Can Save the Union
Former New York state senator Daniel Squadron makes the case that state governments — not Washington — are where democratic governance can actually be rebuilt from the ground up.
Why we picked this
Squadron governed in Albany and ran civic organizations — his argument about state power is practical rather than theoretical, grounded in what actually changed and why.
Daniel Squadron, who served in the New York State Senate and has led multiple civic organizations, argues in The Fourth Branch that the path back to functional democratic governance runs through state capitols, not Washington. The book examines cases where state governments have passed meaningful legislation, protected rights, and created institutional innovations that the federal government has been unable to deliver — and asks what it would take to scale those successes.
Squadron’s argument is a direct challenge to both the cynicism that dismisses all government and the federalism-as-obstruction framing that focuses exclusively on states as barriers to federal action. Drawing on his own experience in Albany and his work in civic infrastructure, he makes a case grounded in what has actually worked rather than constitutional theory.
The Wharf venue is fitting for a conversation that is, implicitly, a critique of Washington’s own dysfunction. For readers who feel trapped between a broken federal government and an absence of alternatives, Squadron’s book offers a structural argument rather than a motivational one.