Federalism

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Federalism
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Figure 3.1 Lines of Power in Three Systems of
Government
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Unitary Government National Government - Supreme
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Confederation States - Supreme
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Federal Government Shared Power-Federal
Government - Supreme in Some Areas Only
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American Federalism

• A bold, new plan to protect personal liberty
• Founders believed that neither national nor state
  government would have authority over the other
  because power derives from the people, who shift
  their support.
• New plan had no historical precedent.
• Tenth Amendment was added as an afterthought, to
  define the power of states

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John Marshall Chief Justice of Supreme
Court (1801-1835)
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Marbury vs Madison (1803) Judicial Review
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McCulloch vs Maryland (1819) necessary and
proper clause
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Article I, Section 8 Article VI, the Supremacy
Clause 10th Amendment Article IV
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Dual federalism

• Both national and state governments supreme in
  their own spheres
• Hence interstate versus intrastate commerce
• Early product-based distinction difficult
• "Original package" also unsatisfactory

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Grants-in-aid

• Grants show how political realities modify legal
  authority.
• Began before the Constitution with "land grant
  colleges," various cash grants to states
• Dramatically increased in scope in the twentieth
  century
• Were attractive for various reasons
• Federal budget surpluses (nineteenth century)
• Federal income tax became a flexible tool
• Federal control of money supply meant national
  government could print more money
• "Free" money for state officials

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Meeting national needs 1960s shift in
grants-in-aid

• Meeting national needs 1960s shift in
  grants-in-aid
• From what states demanded
• To what federal officials found important as
  national needs

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Categorical grants versus revenue sharing

• Categorical grants for specific purposes often
  require local matching funds
• Block grants devoted to general purposes with few
  restrictions
• Revenue sharing requires no matching funds and
  provides freedom in how to spend.
• Distributed by statistical formula
• Ended in 1986

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Mandates

• Most concern civil rights and environmental
  protection
• Administrative and financial problems often
  result
• Growth in mandates, 1981 to 1991
• Features of mandates
• Regulatory statutes and amendments of previous
  legislation
• New areas of federal involvement
• Considerable variation in clarity,
  administration, and costs

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Federal courts have fueled the growth of mandates

• Court orders and prisons, school desegregation,
  busing, hiring practices, police brutality

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Conditions of aid

• Received by states voluntarily, in theory
• Financial dependence blurs the theory
• Civil rights generally the focus of most
  important conditions in the 1960's, a
  proliferation has continued since the 1970's

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Devolution
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Renewed effort to shift important functions to
states by Republican-controlled Congress in 1994

• Key issue welfare (i.e., the AFDC program)
• These and other turn-back efforts were referred
  to as devolution.
• Old idea, but led by Congress
• Clinton agreed with need to scale back size and
  activities of federal government.

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Figure 3.2 The Changing Purposes of Federal
Grants to State and Local Governments
Source Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal
Year 1999, Table 12.2, 205-210.
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Figure 3.3 Federal Aid to State and Local
Governments, 1980-2000
Source Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal
Year 1998, Historical Tables, Table 6.1, 99.
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Figure 3.5 Devolution in the Polls The States
over Washington
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For more information about this topic, link to
the Metropolitan Community College Political
Science Web Site http//socsci.mccneb.edu/pos/pols
cmain.htm