Federalism.

I.  The United States is one nation with many governments.

A. In a federal system, government power is divided between national and constituent governments.

1. The U.S. Constitution is specific only on powers to be granted to national and state governments.

2. Federalism offers an approach that unifies diverse people into nations, but it also retains the elements that can lead to disunity.

B. Scholars have attempted to capture the true meaning of federalism in an adjective or metaphor.

1. DUAL FEDERALISM implies distinct layers (layer-cake metaphor) of government that do not mix or share power in their own spheres.

a. The Constitution is a compact between sovereign states.

b. States are viewed as powerful components of the federal system, equal in some respects with the national government.

2. COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM emphasizes intermingling (marble-cake metaphor) of government activities at different levels and in various spheres.

a. The people are viewed as citizens of both state and nation.

b. This view stresses the role of the national government.

3. The Tenth Amendment says that "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people."

4. It is from the ELASTIC CLAUSE that the concept of IMPLIED POWERS, those powers not spelled out but expected to be asserted by the national government to carry out its enumerated responsibilities, was derived.

C. The relationship between national and state governments has shifted over time. Why?

1. Constitutional theory does NOT account for such shifts.

2. Politics and historical circumstances have influenced this relationship.

a. The attempted secession of the southern states from the Union was the greatest test of the strong (states' rights) position with regard to federalism.

3. Specific constitutional changes account for some shifts in the federal balance of power.

a. The due process and equal protection requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment restrict state power by vesting supervision of these requirements with the national government.

b. Another example is the Sixteenth Amendment, which established a national income tax.

II. The national government's use of incentives and sanctions accounts for the greatest shift in the relationship between nation and states.

A. The national government uses sanctions in the form of legislation and judicial interpretation and incentives in the form of grants and revenue sharing.

1. An example of a legislative sanction is the VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965, which gives national government officials the power to decide whether individuals are qualified to vote and requires that qualified individuals are permitted to vote in national, state, and local elections.

a. The Constitution specifies that the states shall set voter qualifications (Article I, Section 2).

b. However, the elastic clause (Article I, Section 8,  Clause 18), coupled with the Fifteenth Amendment, enlarges the power of the national government.

2. Example of judicial interpretation as sanctions by the national government include:

a. Due process and reapportionment cases, in which the Supreme Court championed equality by protecting rights that had been denied individuals by the states.

b. Supreme Court defense of individual rights against encroachment by the states; the Court substitutes national standards for the state standards in the delicate balance between state and national power.

3. Incentives by the national government include:

a. GRANTS IN AID: money paid by one level of government to another level, to be spent for a specific purpose. They are often awarded on a matching basis. Grants take two general forms.

(1) CATEGORICAL GRANTS are targeted for specific purposes. Restrictions on their use leave little discretion to the government receiving the grant (e.g., disaster assistance). These grants may be further divided into two groups.

(a) FORMULA GRANTS are distributed according to a given formula, specifying who is eligible and how much each recipient will receive.

(b) PROJECT GRANTS are awarded on the basis of competitive applications.

(2) BLOCK GRANTS are the second type of grants-in-aid. These are awarded for more general purposes. (e.g., community development).

III. The national government is increasingly predominant.

A. Judicial interpretations have played a large role in this change.

1. MCCULLOCH v. MARYLAND (1819) supported doctrines of implied powers and national supremacy.

2. The DRED SCOTT decision (1857) ruled that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the territories.

3. HAMMER v. DAGENHART (1918) declared child labor laws unconstitutional and reaffirmed the concept of dual federalism.

4. Regarding New Deal legislation (1936, 1937), the Supreme Court first ruled acts unconstitutional and then reversed itself.

a. The problems created by the Great Depression of the 1930s were too extensive for state governments and private business to remedy.

(1) Emergency relief measures enacted by Congress centralized government efforts to aid the unemployed.

(2) Regulations attached to the disbursement of funds extended national control over the states.

B. The national government in the 1950s and 1960s began to focus on poverty and racial discrimination issues.

1. BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION (1954) forced the national government to order states to integrate their public schools.

2. In 1964 and 1965 Congress acted to constrain states from denying equality in employment, accommodations, and access to voting.

C. President Johnson's War on Poverty, launched with a heavy barrage of social legislation, significantly increased the
scope of national government activity.

1. Massive amounts of national funds went not only to state governments but also directly to local governments and community groups.

2. In response, government bureaucracies to administer these new programs increased dramatically.

D. Since the 1960s, American INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS have evolved to FRUIT CAKE FEDERALISM, where the overlaps and duplications between federal and state governments have become dense and unmanageable, yet provide "sweets" for everyone.

E. Continued congressional inclination toward local program funding has led to more lobbying activity from increased numbers of organized interests.

IV. Federalism is ever-evolving and changing, with the most recent manifestation being NEW AGE FEDERALISM.

A. President Nixon (1969-1974) imposed a NEW FEDERALISM designed to decentralize national policies.

B. President Carter (1977-1981) continued the trend of cutting national aid to states.

C. President Reagan (1981-1989) continued to reduce federal contributions to states, leaving them to find new sources of revenue or cut services.

D. President Bush (1989-1993) reaffirmed Reagan's New Federalism and reasserted Reagan's policy of assuring that policies and legislation give maximum discretion to state and local governments as laboratories for policy innovation.

E. President Clinton's policies seem to be a continuation of the same goals of asking states to be creative yet cutting federal funds to support their programs.

V. Americans come under the jurisdiction of several governmental units, which have been created by state governments. 

A. These units include:

1. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS, the governments of cities and towns. Some are granted HOME RULE by their state and are able to enact and enforce certain legislation.

2. COUNTY GOVERNMENTS, which administer counties.

3. SCHOOL DISTRICTS, which administer local elementary and secondary education programs.

4. SPECIAL DISTRICTS, which perform particular functions such as sanitation or transportation.

B. This multitude of governments has both positive and negative aspects.

1. Its positive potential means that

a. Localized government is closer to the people.

b. There are more opportunities for participation.

c. Greater leeway exists for small-scale experimentation.

d. More levels of government increase the possibilities of responding to diversity.

2. Its negative potential means that

a. Small-scale governments may lack resources to respond to local problems.

b. The complexity of multiple governments may discourage individual participation.

c. Organized interests, or "insiders," with time, money, and expertise may dominate decentralized governments.

d. Conflicting standards and laws may cause confusion.

VI. Dilemmas of federalism today

A. The battle over states' rights and federal obligations continues. Those who favor states' rights make these arguments:

1. Different states have different problems. Returning control to the states would encourage experimentation based on state diversity.

2. States would compete with each other and the people could choose the state government they preferred by moving to that state.

3. The national government is too remote from the people and it is dominated by special interests.

4. The federal government's size leads to waste and inefficiency.

B. Those who favor more federal intervention continue to comment that:

1. Historically, the states have not been responsive to various constituencies.

a. It took federal action to overcome inequalities.

b. It took federal action to create uniform standards to protect civil liberties.

2. Poor states cannot provide benefits that rich states can offer, yet state citizens--rich and poor--are citizens of the United States. National citizenship should address these inequalities.

C. There is a relationship between federalism and pluralism.

1. Federalism recognizes the legitimacy of states as political units.

2. These political divisions are an acknowledgment of diversity.

3. Each of the two competing theories of federalism supports pluralism.

a. Dual federalism gives prominence to local rather than national standards.

b. Cooperative federalism blurs the line between state and national responsibility, which encourages the people to promote their interests at the level of government--state or national--that offers the best chance of success.