There is, I believe, a basic assertion of right in municipal incorporation. This distinction, though subtle, highlights the respect that is given voluntary association by American law, being the historical basis of America’s existence and therefore the core of American legitimacy itself. A municipality is simply a group of people choosing, of their own volition, to form a political relationship with one another; this is the distinctly American “right.”

As a work of political philosophy, the central principle of Plato’s Republic is unity. In the words of Aristotle, “Socrates takes as his...