[goldstategop]

I think something along the lines of the German Bundesrat would work. Allow each state to send an ambassador to the federal government and instead of giving them a fixed term, allow Senators to be recalled at the instruction of their home government. Such a change would transform the Senate into a watchdog on the central government and into a more effective advocate of state interests.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[alexander_busek]

>>Allow each state to send an ambassador to the federal government ...<<

While I like your general thinking, please do bear in mind that the German system isn’t quite as simple as each state sending “an” emissary. The actual formula by which it is determined how many emissaries each individual state is entitled to send is rather unfair. Add to that the fact that the geographic boundaries of the present-day German states (both in the East and the West) are rather arbitrary, and the unfairness becomes even more evident. (In contrast, U.S. states have much more identity and far longer traditions.) Lastly, most Germans, themselves, attribute much of the sluggishness of their parliamentary system to the inertia of the Bundesrat.