The Federal System Federalism in Action and Nationalization

1
The Federal SystemFederalism in Action and
Nationalization

• The Logic of American Politics
• Chapter Three Federalism

2
Federalism

• Federalism is a hybrid system mixing elements of
  a confederation where lower level governments
  possess all real authority and unitary government
  in which national government has a monopoly on
  constitutional authority.

3
Types of Federalism

• Two distinct forms of American federalism
• Dual federalism
• Shared federalism

4
Dual Federalism

• The simplest possible arrangement.
• In this type of federalism, the states and the
  national government each preside over mutually
  exclusive spheres of sovereignty
• This appears to have been many of the Founders
  intent and is expressed by Madison in Federalist
  No. 45
• Doesnt often work that way in practice

5
Shared Federalism

• In shared federalism, also called cooperative
  federalism, national and state governments
  jointly supply services to the citizenry
• A gradual process of nationalization has moved
  American federalism from one of mostly dual
  federalism to one of mostly shared federalism.

6
Shared Federalism

• The Constitution leaves room for a variety of
  federal-state relations.

7
The Constitution on Federalism

• The ratification of the Constitution was by state
  conventions that directly represented the people,
  not by the state governments themselves.
• Thus the people created the national government,
  not the states.

8
The Constitution on Federalism

• Protections on Federalism
• Greatest victory of states rights advocates
  during the Constitutional Convention was the
  creation of a Senate whose members were to be
  selected by the state legislatures.
• In the 19th century the equal representation of
  states regardless of population, combined with
  the selection of senators by the state
  legislatures made the Senate the natural defender
  of states rights.

9
The Constitution on Federalism

• The provision of the Constitution with the most
  profound implication for modern American
  federalism is the supremacy clause found in
  Article IV.
• This Constitution, and the Laws of the United
  States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof
  that is, in keeping with the principles of the
  Constitution shall be the supreme law of the
  land.
• This clause does not, however, give the federal
  government free license.

10
The Constitution on Federalism

• Article I, Section 8 lists powers of Congress
  (enumerated powers).
• These powers are important to federalism because
  they create jurisdictional boundaries between the
  states and the national government.

11
The Constitution on Federalism

• The Tenth Amendment offers the most explicit
  endorsement of federalism to be found in the
  Constitution.
• The powers not delegated to the United States by
  the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the
  States, are reserved to the States respectively,
  or to the people.

12
Nationalization

• There has been a shift from a search for a role
  for the national government to play amidst the
  states to a search for the role of the states in
  a nation (Samuel Beer)
• Controversy over whether both national and state
  government came from the people or whether the
  national government came from the states. In
  short, who is sovereign?
• Controversy evident in the conflict between the
  federalists and antifederalists.
• Re-emerged to prominence in the 1980s with
  renewed talk of states rights

13
The Logic of Nationalization

• Once a public good encompasses the larger
  community, the logic for local control disappears

14
The Road to Nationalization

• In the early 19th century, little coordination
  was needed.

15
The Road to Nationalization

• That changed with
• growth
• industrialization
• urbanization
• development of national transportation and
  communication systems

16
Nationalization The Solution to States
Collective Dilemmas

• The kinds of collective action dilemmas that
  prompt states to ask the national government for
  help often fall into one of three categories
• Coordination problems
• Reneging and shirking
• Cutthroat competition

17
Coordination Problems

• A nation composed of fifty states is bound to
  face coordination problems
• The national government is often able to solve
  them
• Example drivers license laws
• Standardizing requirements for interstate
  truckers
• Creation of national bureau to centralize records
  of traffic violations
• Example pollution and the Clean Air Act

18
Reneging and Shirking

• When left to themselves, states may not always
  honor their commitments to their sister states
• The national government can act as the third
  party enforcer, insuring that commitments are
  kept
• Example pollution and the Environmental
  Protection Agency

19
Cutthroat Competition

• Under the Articles of Confederation, each state
  was free to conduct its own international trade
  policy.
• Foreign governments and merchants would exploit
  the competition among the states for their own
  ends.
• Classic prisoners dilemma
• Negotiating from a united front would be the best
  strategy, but states underbid each other or
  engaged in cutthroat competition.

20
Cutthroat Competition

• At times cutthroat competition prompts state
  officials to lobby the national government for
  regulations that would prevent bidding wars.
• Examples minimum wage standards, environmental
  regulation.
• States today routinely compete over drawing
  businesses through tax breaks, lower workers
  compensation regulations, etc.

21
The Political Logic of Nationalization

• Sometimes those promoting a policy find that it
  is in their interest to shift their focus from
  the states to the national government. Why?
• Difficult to lobby/persuade 50 separate states.
• More efficient method a single federal law can
  change policy in all 50 states at once.
• National government may be more receptive.

22
The Political Logic of Nationalization

• Groups that lose at the national level can see
  smaller victories in those states where they
  enjoy majority support.
• Example social conservatives on the issues of
  abortion rights (see Table 3-2) and school
  prayer.

23
The Road to Nationalization

• There are certain things that a local or state
  government has difficulty providing. Food safety
  standards and commercial regulation are examples.
• Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
• Regulation of railroads as farmers protested rate
  discrimination and high charges.
• Antimonopoly laws.

24
The Road to Nationalization

• The nationalization of public policy grew out of
  the requirements of collective action.
• states have solicited federal intervention when
  they cannot solve their problems by working
  together individually.
• sometimes easier and more efficient for the
  majority to work through Washington, D.C., than
  through the states.
• Also, Americans have at times collectively
  decided to adopt policies of such magnitude and
  scope that they outstripped the resources of the
  state.

25
Historic Transfers of Policy to Washington

• Roosevelts New Deal (1930s).
• Johnsons Great Society (1960s).
• Broadened the scope of federal responsibilities.
• Were accompanied by large national majorities to
  Congress from the presidents party. A mandate
  for new collective goods.

26
The New Deal

• Roosevelts New Deal was a comprehensive set of
  economic regulations and relief programs (massive
  in size and scope) intended to fight the Great
  Depression.
• To justify its unprecedented intervention in the
  economy, FDR invoked the commerce clause in the
  Constitution.

27
The Great Society

• Elected in 1964, Lyndon Johnson and his
  Democratic Congress launched a War on Poverty --
  part of a Great Society agenda.
• Traditional state and local responsibilities
  became federal ones.

28
Other causes of nationalization

• In 1913 the 17th Amendment took the election of
  senators away from the state legislators and gave
  it to the people directly.

29
The Constitutional Basis for Nationalization

• The commerce clause (Article I, Section 8)
• The elastic clause (Article I, Section 8), also
  known as the necessary and proper clause

30
Nationalization and the Court

• The Framers envisioned the Supreme Court as the
  referee of disputes between the national and
  state governments.

31
Nationalization and the Court

• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
• Protected the national government from actions of
  the state.

32
Nationalization and the Court

• Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
• Only Congress possesses authority to regulate
  commerce.

33
Nationalization and the Court

• Garcia v. San Antonio Metro Transit Authority
  (1985)
• Federal wage hours applied to state and local
  employees.

34
Modern Federalism

• Preemption legislation federal laws that assert
  the national governments prerogative to control
  public policy in a field.
• Relatively little preemption prior to the New
  Deal. Afterwards, much more.
• Power drawn from the Constitutions supremacy
  clause.
• Preemption not the most common mechanism of
  national control.

35
Inducing Cooperation

• How does the federal government induce
  cooperation from the constitutionally independent
  states?
• Carrots (financial inducements and rewards)
• sticks (regulations and unfunded mandates).

36
The Carrot Federal Grants to the States

• Few grants prior to New Deal.
• During the last fifty years federal grants-in-aid
  become an important part of intergovernmental
  relations.
• All of these programs enlist categorical grants,
  in which federal dollars are tied to particular
  programs or categories of spending.

37
The Carrot Federal Grants to the States

• Another alternative to categorical grants block
  grants.
• Like categorical grants, funds are appropriated
  to achieve a particular policy goal with specific
  administrative procedures. BUT, policy targets
  are only generally stated and fewer strings are
  attached.

38
The Stick Unfunded Mandates

• Since the 1960s the federal government has relied
  increasingly on rules to pursue policy objectives
  (see Table 3-3).
• States are required to administer policies they
  might object to, and they may even be asked to
  pay for the administration of the policies.
• One of most controversial Education for all
  Handicapped Children Act of 1975.

39
Methods Used to Prescribe State Policy

• The national government uses four basic methods
  to prescribe state policy and supervise its
  administration.
• Cross-cutting requirements.
• Crossover sanctions.
• Direct orders.
• Partial preemption.

40
Cross-cutting Requirements

• Statutes that apply certain rules and guidelines
  to a broad array of federally subsidized state
  programs.
• Example failure of any state to follow federal
  guidelines that prohibit discrimination can
  result in the prosecution of state officials as
  well as loss of grants.
• Has been used to enforce civil rights laws.

41
Crossover Sanctions

• Stipulations that to remain eligible for full
  federal funding for one program a state must
  adhere to the guidelines of an unrelated program.
• Example Congresss stipulation that federal
  highway funds be tied to state adoption of a
  minimum drinking age of twenty-one.
• Example bill restricting sale of soft drinks on
  school grounds tied to school aid funds.

42
Direct Orders

• Requirements that can be enforced by legal and
  civil penalties.
• Example the Clean Water Act.

43
Partial Preemption

• Certain federal laws allow the states to
  administer joint federal-state programs so long
  as they conform to federal guidelines.
• If an agency fails to follow the instructions of
  the federal agencies, the state might lose
  control of the program.
• Example state air pollution policies.
• Public law and the EPA set minimally acceptable
  standards, but enforcement of these standards
  rests mostly with state agencies.

44
Federalism Review

• The Constitution set up a federal system where
  both the national and state government were
  supposed to have separate powers.
• Federal-state relations, however, are dynamic,
  not static.
• Gradual nationalization of public policy.
• Sometimes in response to collective action
  problems.
• Sometimes in response to specific policy
  problems.
• Often the result of political considerations and
  conflict.