Federalism
The Logic of American Politics
Chapter Three
American-Style Federalism
• Federal system:
– Authority divided between two or
more distinct levels of government.
– Example?
• Hybrid of:
–Confederation
–Unitary System
Qualifications of Federal Systems
•
Three general conditions:
1. The same people and territory are
included in both levels of government.
2. The nation’s Constitution protects units
at each level of government from
encroachment by the other units.
3. Each unit is in a position to exert some
leverage over the other.
Types of Federalism
• Two distinct forms of American
federalism have been identified.
–Dual federalism.
–Shared federalism.
Dual & Shared Federalism
Dual Federalism
• Nationalization
– Shifted authority to the national side and
away from state governments.
– Today the national government has a hand
in almost all policies that “concern the
lives” of the citizenry.
– Dual federalism no longer describes that
nature of federal-state relations.
Shared Federalism
• National and state governments jointly
supply services to the citizenry.
• American federalism has shifted from
mostly dual to mostly shared.
Shared Federalism
• National politicians discovered that the wall
between the federal government and the
states was not impregnable.
– The Constitution leaves ample room for a variety
of federal-state relations.
The Constitution and Federalism
• Victory for states’ righters.
– 17th amendment
• Ratification of the Constitution.
– States worked as a republic
• State conventions that directly represented the
people.
• Supremacy Clause
• Article 1, Section 8
The Tenth Amendment
• Madison’s incentive for ratification:
– Protections for the states
– Protection of individual citizens.
• Tenth Amendment: reserved powers.
• Explicit endorsement of federalism.
Supreme Court:
Federal/State Arbitrator
• Court resolved conflict between
federal and state governments.
• Created powerful precedents:
–McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
–Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
The Logic of Nationalization
• Policy nationalization:
– Realities of collective action (problem
solving).
– Purely political considerations.
• Road-building game example.
The Paths to Nationalization
• Changes in the United States:
– Growth
– Industrialization
– Urbanization
– Development of national transportation and
communication systems
• The nation’s desire for public goods that
could not be met by local communities and
states increased.
The Paths to Nationalization
• The nationalization of
public policy grew out of
the requirements of
collective action.
– Adopt policies that
outstripped the resources of
the state.
• Examples?
– States have solicited federal
intervention.
– Sometimes easier for the
majority to work through
Washington, D.C., than
through the states.
Nationalization: The Solution to
States’ Collective Dilemmas
•
Collective action
dilemmas may
prompt states to
ask Washington
for help.
• Coordination
problems.
– Examples?
• Reneging and
shirking.
– Examples?
• Cutthroat
competition.
– Examples?
The Political Logic of Nationalization
• Difficult to lobby/persuade fifty
separate states.
• More efficient method -- a single federal
law can change policy in all fifty states
at once.
– National government may be more
receptive.
– Also, opposite can be true.
• Example?
Modern Federalism
• National government’s primacy in setting
domestic policy is secure.
– Recent Supreme Court decisions.
• Limit federal government.
– Gains have been modest.
– Easily circumvented by an alternative strategy of
financial inducements.
• Preemption legislation.
– Less so than sharing responsibility.
• “Carrots and sticks”.
The “Carrot”:
Federal Grants to the States
• Categorical grants
• Block grants:
– Policy targets are only generally stated.
– Fewer strings are attached.
The “Stick”: Unfunded Mandates
• States required to administer policies to
which they might object.
– May be asked to pay for the administration
of the policies.
– Examples?
Methods Used to Prescribe
State Policy
•
The national government uses four
basic methods to prescribe state policy
and supervise its administration.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Cross-cutting requirements.
Crossover sanctions.
Direct orders.
Partial preemption.
Trends in Federalism
• Stages of American Federalism
Federal Regulation of States
• Before the 1970s:
– Federal grants plentiful.
– Few regulatory policies in place.
• Since the 1970s:
– More coercive forms of regulation, direct
orders and partial preemption favored.
– Federal regulation of states concentrated in
two areas:
• Environment.
• Civil rights.
Trends:
Federal Regulation of States
• Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
• The practice of unfunded mandates and
preemptive legislation has continued.
Federalism:
Byproduct of National Policy
• Federal-state relations are dynamic.
– Dramatically transformed during the twentieth
century.
• Nationalization of public policy is not based
on a grand design planned by the Framers.
• Product of the interplay of political interests.
– Problem solving.
– Constituency service.
• Likely to continue in this form.