When making the case for a single, centralized sovereign to replace the system under the Articles of Confederation, Alexander Hamilton cited the loose eighteenth-century German confederation as an example of provincial sovereignty gone awry. He advocated a centralized system of finance and decision making that would relegate subnational governments primarily to the administration of policies conceived and funded by the center. Two hundred years later, the German federation is much closer to Hamilton's vision of centralized legislation and taxation than a “community of sovereigns.” Yet the German postwar constitution is nevertheless extremely federal in every respect outlined in Chapter 2. Above all, the Länder are very important players in the federal policy process, and the constitution provides them with a number of robust institutional safeguards.