More people live in Washington, D.C., than in either Vermont or Wyoming, but they have no governor, no voting representation in Congress, and only limited local authority. The reason is simple: D.C. isn’t a state. But should it be? That’s where things get a bit more complicated.
A Safe Space for Federal Government
Washington, D.C., was designed to be stateless from the start. The framers included the notion of an independent capital “not exceeding ten Miles square“ in Article I of the Constitution, and James Madison argued in Federalist 43 for “The indispensable necessity of complete authority at the seat of government,” which he deemed critical to avoiding the federal government’s “dependence . on the State.”