One hundred and fifty years after Kansas was admitted to the Union, we still find ourselves fascinated by the specter of Bleeding Kansas and the violence that preceded the American Civil War by five years. Although ample attention has been devoted to understanding why territorial violence broke out in Kansas in 1856, of equal concern but less illuminated is the question of why government, both local and national, allowed the violence to continue unstanched for so long. This question is fundamentally about governance-its existence, exercise, limits, and continuance-and its study has...

One hundred and fifty years after Kansas was admitted to the Union, we still find ourselves fascinated by the specter of Bleeding Kansas and the violence that preceded the American Civil War by five years. Although ample attention has been devoted to understanding why territorial violence broke out in Kansas in 1856, of equal concern but less illuminated is the question of why government, both local and national, allowed the violence to continue unstanched for so long. This question is fundamentally about governanceits existence, exercise, limits, and continuanceand its study has...