Chapter 3 - Federalism
WARNING
This chapter is no longer relevant for upcoming tests.
Types of Government
| Government Type | Central Control | State Control |
|---|---|---|
| Confederation | 40% | 60% |
| Federalism † | 60% | 40% |
| Unitary | 100% | 0% |
† It's more like an 85% - 15% divide in the US now with federalism. {docsify-ignore}
Unitary
Most popular very centralized power, govt. makes policy for the entire nation.
Examples
- Most of the countries of the world have a unitary govt..
Confederation
States have more autonomy and are not tied to a central govt.. Very rare.
Examples
- Switzerland... except not really so basically no country today.
Federalism
Power is divided between central govt. and loal states. States have autonomy to make their own laws but they cannot pass laws that would violate a superior law.
6 Requirements
- Legal powers: Regional govts. must have power to them to form their own political structure.
- California has a state Assembly, and a state senate
- There are term limites for each senate assemblymen and each state senator.
- A governor and deputy governor who is independently elected.
- Revenue Powers: Regional govts. must be able to raise their own taxes.
- Oregon; no state tax, no gax tax
- Functional-area authority and responsibilities: Regional govts have control over activities and programs in major areas of theri govt.
- California determines the amount of welfare.
- Each city has their own local laws.
- Prositution and gambling is illegal except for Nevada.
- 38 states have the death penalty.
- Historical Social and cultural identification: Each region has its own culture, history that is unique to themselves.
- Spanish, Mexican, Indian heritage in CA.
- Role of the affairs of the central govt: Regional govt can influence the central govt.
- Intergovt.al lobbying - Gov newsome lobbies Washington for favorable things.
- Tax money can be spent in any way they want.
- USSR was a federation, not a democracy
- Ower over local units: Regional govt. can have power over local govt. in their borders, havep ower over local finances & and money will be spent.
Other Facts
- Elastic Clause leads to the implied powers of the govt.
- Powers granted to both the states and the nation are called concurrent powers.
Why Federalism
Federalism is best suited for the US because:
- It is a huge nation, very difficult for a centralized govt to rule efficiently.
- It is a very diverse nation, the most diverse in the world. Federalism allows this diversity to continue, people can identify with their specific enthicity and still identify as American. They don't feel that the central govt. is trying to eradicate their ethnicity.
- The US was the first country in the world to establish a federal form of govt. Motivations for establishing federalism rather than a unity govt. were:
- Would prevent the central govt. from becoming all powerful, thus would protect the rights of of man.
- Would appeal more to those elites who feared the stronger centralized govt. as established in the Constutiton would violate the rights of man. Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry in particular wanted guaranteed powers for the states.
Midterm Question
[!DANGER|style:flat] As discussed primarily in lecture, but also a bit in the textbook, what are the advantages and disadvantages of Federalism?
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Federalism promotes national unity while permitting local diversity to continue. Each state, county, and city has the ability to make laws that paply to their local needs.
- Federalism prevents the rise of a despotic central govt. and does not threaten the private liberties of the citizen because the power is divided between national, state, county and city duties.
- Federalism stimulates the interest of citizens in local affairs (because they can influence local law) thereby sensitizing the people to their civic duties.
Cons
- Federalism encourages wasteful duplication of service between levels of govt. and at times it slows the political process (as in appeals to the court system).
- Diversity of state laws and procedures creates an unfair situation for citizens from a national perspective.
- For example, the average felony of conviction leads up to 13 months of jail time in S. Dakota as opposed to 58 months in Massachusetts. Makes it an advantage to commit a crime in a certain state.
- Car, law, real estate, teaching, etc.. licenses aren't transferrable between states. Each state has unique requirements that must be met in order to get a license to drive or practice an occupation.
- Giving more powers to the states may be an unwise decision, because there is ample proof that states run their respective govts. no more efficiently than federal bureaucrats run the national govt. in Washington.
- Federalism can result in unequal opportunities, because the wealthier states can provice better schools, medical care, and other services far more effectively than the poorer states.
- The fragmentation of authority under federalism can permit unscrupulous interest groups who are concentrated in specific states to acquire undue influence and political power in the states.
Fiscal Federalism
govt. tries to aid state govt. by providing them with money.
For many years, the federal govt. has provided financial assistance to state and local govts, but it has only been within the last 30 years that this federal aid has dramatically increased from states getting 10% of their money from the federal govt. to spend on local programs to 28% in 1978. Now Federal spending on the state level is down to about 8-10% - this means that 8-10% of the money that a state spends on local programs comes from the govt.
The Big 4
- Homeland security
- Education - decreased under George W
- Health - decreased under George W
- Welfare - decreased under Clinton
The Medium 4
- Transportation (cut down the most recently)
- Revenue Sharing
- States and cities and loggy govt. in an effort to get these funds. This lobbying is called intergovt.al lobbying
Thus states compete much with one another to get scarce govt. funds. Generally those states that are successful in getting funds are those states that have a large population that is poor, young, and a minority.
Midterm Question
[!DANGER|style:flat] Discuss the different types of govt. grant programs. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
Types of Federal Grants
Categorical grants and graints-in-aid money that can only be used for one specific purpose and may have many strings attached.
Attached Strings
- States or cities have to establish an agency to administer the funds.
- (Oops, I missed this part)
- States or cities must often match funds for the project
- These types of grants are sbject to regular view by the federal govt..
Block Grants
Provide state and local govts. with money for broadly defined purposes.
Revenue Sharing
Federal funds turned back to the state and local govt. with no strings attached. Money granted according formulas taking into account the state's population and local tax bases. States that usually get this money are populous, poor states with arge minority.
Project Grants
Money for specific projects, example urban renewal grants for specific slum clearance projects - Lyndon Johnson lunched a lot of sponsored projects during his administration. These aren't done anymore.
What do States Give In Return
- Compliance with and implementation of federal programs.
- States get money to help reelect their politicans.
- States lose some autonomy.
- States ecme reliant on Washington for money
What does the Federal Govt. Sacrifice
Federal govt sees its policies become 50 different ones because of state variation.
Histoy of US Federalism
- The US has a constitutionally mandated federal system because the Founders ahd no choice. That states were not going to relinquish all of their power to a national govt.
- Many people known as the Anti-Federalists (Thomas Jefferson) would not support govt. unless the states were allowed independent powers.
- At first it was not quite clear right where the line was drawn.
- It was not until the Civil War that the whole issue of the supremacy of the national govt. was settled.
- Govt. power generally increased over the years with the states taking over the responsibility for paying for more and more of the states local programs.
- The big leaps in govt. funding occurred in the 1930-40's when with the Great Depression, the govt. began to spend on local areas and in the 1060's when Johnson established the New Society programs which gave states and local communities a lot of money to rebuild their slums.
- Nixon tried to halt federal spending with his New Federalism Plan. This plan was that govt. would withdraw funds from states and allow states to fund local programs with state funds rather than with national funds.
[!COMMENT] Majority of the disagreement between the right and the left comes from the disagreements over who should be helping the poor and doing social spending.
Reason why New Federalism Didn't Work
- Nixon underestimated the political strength of the agency-client link characteristic of most categorical programs.
- He underestimated the power resources of intergovt.al lobbying.
- He has no clear idea of what role the federal govt. should play.
Federalism reached its peak under Jimmy Carter in 1978, then began to taper off.
Reagan's new new Federalism - Federal govt. was no longer taking care of local and state programs. States had to rely on local money from now on. He halted the ever increasing federal budget for govt. sponsored programs.
[!COMMENT] Jimmy Carter funded Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban to fight the Russians for the sake of opposing communism under any circumstance.
Main Components of New New Federalism
- Combined categorical frants - 34 in all to 6 block grants
- Cut the over-all money for the block grants
- States could drop programs that they did not like
- Fewer federal guidelines on how the money should be spent.
- Another huge jump in pwoer to the central govt. occurred under George Bush immediately after 9/11.
- Patriot 1 Act granted huge sweeping powers to the CIA/FBI in terms of search, seizure and arrest without a warrant (in direct violation of Constitutional amendment #4).
- The US govt. is so powerful now that some political scientists are questioning if we are indeed moving away from federalism and becoming a unitary form of govt.
Partisan Differences in Federal Spending
The amount of govt. involvement in state and local govt. varies depending on the party - so the amount of govt. involvement in state and local affairs is by no means constant.
Under democratic govt., the govt. becomes more involved in local govt. and grants more money, so states pay less money.
Under republican govt. the govt. is less involved in local govt. and grants less money to states to states must spend more money.
Thus American Federalism is characterized by cycles of little govt. involvement in state and local affairs followed by period of increased govt. involvement in state and local affairs.