Ernest Callenbach's novel Ecotopia develops a separate state consisting of the former states of Washington and Oregon along with the northern part of California. This state has separated from the United States and has developed a system based on the idea of deep ecology, based on the idea of "stable states" by which the ecology is maintained so that there is no decay and nothing taken out that is not put back into the ecology. The political system in the state of Ecotopia differs from that of the federal system with which many in that part of the U.S. were dissatisfied. The perspective of Robert A. Dahl serves to illuminate and criticize aspects of the political system in Ecotopia.
That system is described first as having been brought into existence by means of drastic tactics. The system was developed by the Survivalists who were most unhappy with the federal system in the U.S. Callenbach envisions a situation in which the one-third of the existing legislators and leaders who were women were in danger of being gerrymandered out of existence by males, supported by Washington, D.C. This led to widespread defiance of federal regulations, and the resulting chaos produced the growth of locally controlled organs of state in the form of workers' councils and citizens' councils. This led to what the Ecotopians view as their Independence. Stability brought a situation in which the Survivalists in the region swept the constitutional convention elections and reorganized the governmental structures of the states and counties. They considered these organs outmoded because they were not related to the organic structures of production and consumption and also because they were inherently non-adaptable for coping with regional ecological systems.
The country has been divided into five metropolitan and four rural regions, and government is highly decentralized. Within each of these regions, the powers of government have been extende...