Download Chapter 3 Outline

Chapter 3 Outline
Why Federalism Matters
1. Kelo v. City of New London, after eighteen months, thirty-four states had
tightened laws on government seizing property.
2. Federal law doesn't fully decide minimum wage. Before Congress had
decided to raise it, at least six states had already done so.
3. Federalism is the balance of power between national and state/local
governments. It is responsible for the actions above as well.
4. State governments in America are protected by the Constitution. They
make the final decision on many subjects over national government
authority.
5. The federal government can pass certain laws, but the states always
decide how those laws are followed and funded.
6. Federalism is behind many important things, such as taxes, speed limits
and school budgets. Crime and punishment are greatly affected, as well
as how civil liberties are defined and protected.
7. The relationship between national and state government is a question
that cannot be settled by "one generation, as it is a question of growth,
and every successive stage of our political and economic development
gives it a new aspect, makes it a new question."
8. Since the adoption of the Constitution, the greatest conflict has always
involved state and federal relations.
The Founding
1. Federalism was one system that protected personal liberty. Separation of
powers was another.
2. Power concentrated in one set of hands would probably lead to tyranny,
but a confederation was at risk of falling apart.
A Bold New Plan
1. A federal republic derives its power from the people and so do the state
governments.
2. Neither would have supreme rule over the other.
3. A citizen can use one to protect rights from the other.
4. It was a totally new idea, one in which no one knew how it would work
when put into practice.
5. Federalism was used first as a synonym for confederation, and few
Framers used it in the sense that we understand it today.
6. Tenth Amendment states that rights not given to the government and not
prohibited to the states are the jurisdiction of the states or the people.
7. Founders assumed this but it wasn't until later that this amendment was
added to allay fears and clarify authority.
8. The Supreme Court has only recently used the Tenth Amendment to
regulate government activities.
Elastic Language
1. Without being too specific, the Framers had to explain the relationships
in government between national and state systems.
2. They couldn't make a clear extremely long list of the powers of federal
government, as circumstances change.
3. Congress was given the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary
and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."
4. Hamilton believed the national government was superior to the states as
the people had created the national government and the laws and
treatises made pursuant to the Constitution were "the supreme law of
the land."
5. Jefferson argued that the federal government was important, but only a
product of the agreement between states.
6. The people are the ultimate sovereign but the national government was
a threat to their liberties. The power of federal government must be
limited.
7. "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution are few and
defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are
numerous and indefinite." -George Madison
The Debate On The Meaning Of Federalism
1. After the Civil War, it was decided that the national government was
supreme, that the states could not lawfully secede.
2. Other aspects of national supremacy were debated long after the war
ended.
The Supreme Court Speaks
1. Supreme Court became the focal point of the heated debate.
2. Chief Justice John Marshall was an influential advocate for a strong
national government.
3. James McCulloch v. Maryland first the Court had to decide if it was
legitimate for the government to set up a bank.
4. They decided that, yes, since the government had the authority to
regulate and print money, it is necessary and proper for the government
to have a national bank.
5. Then they argued whether a federal bank could be taxed by the state.
6. Also, this was won by McCulloch, and since the power to tax included the
power to destroy, the state couldn't tax the bank.
Nullification
1. Nullification is the authority of a state to declare an act of Congress null
and void, because in the state's opinion it is unconstitutional.
2. The Court can decide a case without settling the issue.
3. It was debated whether states can nullify laws passed by Congress that
they consider unconstitutional. The laws expired before it could be
settled.
4. Later, this claim arose, but was settled with the civil war. States can't
declare acts of Congress unconstitutional.
Dual Federalism
1. Dual federalism means the national government is supreme within its
sphere, and the state governments are supreme in theirs and the two
should be kept separate.
2. After the Civil War, the debate on commerce began. It was focused on
interpreting the commerce clause.
3. The doctrine of dual federalism was created. Commerce between states
was the jurisdiction of Congress, such as lottery tickets, liquor,
prostitutes and harmful foods and drugs.
4. Intrastate was decided by the state, and included manufacturing,
insurance and farming.
5. Soon, these two became blurred, as they couldn't decide on when it
became state or national responsibility, and whether the same policy by
the same company in different states should be treated the same.
6. Everything became interstate commerce, even farming and window
washers for interstate companies became a part of the interstate stream.
State Sovereignty
1. Dual federalism isn't entirely dead.
2. United States v. Lopez decided that Congress had exceeded its commerce
clause power when guns weren't allowed in a school zone.
3. Violence Against Women Act,in the United States v. Morris it was decide
that violence against women was not considered part of commerce.
4. The Court has tried to strengthen state rights in other ways too.
5. In Prints v. United States the requirement of police to run background
checks on gun purchases was invalidated.
6. Eleventh Amendment, which protects states from lawsuits from other
states' citizens or foreign nations, is being given new life.
7. Not all acts support state sovereignty.
8. In 1999, the Court ruled that new residents of a state must given the
welfare program of that state, not the program of the state they came
from.
9. State power to enact laws promoting health, safety and morals is the
police power.
Governmental Structure
1. Every country has local units of some kind, but only when local units are
specially protected and can act independently is the system considered
federalism.
2. The U.S., Canada, Australia, India, Germany and Switzerland are
federalist.
3. France, Britain, Italy, and Sweden are unitary.
4. These local units must be somewhat independent of the national
government.
5. The Soviet Union was not federalist as none of the "socialist republics"
were independent of the government.
6. If the Constitution were the only protection for the independence of
states, the U.S. would not be federalist; the commitment of the people
play a huge role in the protection of local units.
7. The national government enforces laws upon and spends the most
resources on, not the citizens, but the states.
8. A large part of welfare, all of interstate highway, the effort to produce
jobs, and the program to clean up our water, are all attempts to ally the
states with the government's goals more than anything else.
Federalism: Good Or Bad
1. Confusion over who is responsible for what often surfaces at the worst
possible moment.
2. Federalism must be viewed as a big picture, a mixture of bad and good
things have happened due to federalism.
3. Federalism has the virtues of its vices and the vices of its virtues.
4. Federalism means to some that states can block acts, prevent progress,
serve self-interested hack politicians, ruin government plans, and protect
powerful local interests.
5. Federalism has many different aspects; Riker described the states as
"parasitic and poisonous" but Elazar commented that this system
improves the government's strength, political flexibility and individual
liberty.
6. This system allows people to maintain racial segregation, and facilitate
corruption, but also to attack segregation and to purify politics.
7. The smaller the unit the more likely for it to be dominated by a single
faction.
Increased Political Activity
1. People are more likely to become involved if they think their efforts will
have a practical effect, which is more likely with more independent
governmental bodies.
2. A federal system lowers the cost of organized political activity because of
the decentralization of authority.
3. A unitary government, with centralized power, raises the cost.
What The States Can Do
1. Many state Constitutions are considered more progressive on many
matters the the federal courts.
2. The federal Constitution is based on a republican principle, that laws are
to be made by representatives.
3. Many state Constitutions are a bit more directly democratic.
4. The initiative is a process that allows voters to legislative measures on
the ballot by getting a certain number of signatures.
5. The referendum procedure permits voters to reject a measure passed by
the legislature.
6. The recall enables voters to remove an elected official from office, given
enough signatures.
7. States are protected, but cities, counties, and towns are not.
Federal-State Relations
Grants-In-Aid
1. Grants-in-aid are donations of the national government to the states.
2. The first of these began before the Constitution in the form of land for
education.
3. Also for wagon roads, canals, railroads and flood control projects.
4. Congress also began giving cash grants for things such as payment for
the state militia and, nowadays, Medicaid.
5. State wanted taxing power of government, while the prevailing
interpretation of the Constitution meant the government couldn't spend
money on certain purposes as the states could.
6. Washington paid the bills while the states ran the programs.
7. Federal money good because it was there, as Washington had a huge
budget surplus,
8. And as these funds dwindled, the government inaugurated the federal
tax,
9. And lastly, the government managed the money and could print more.
10.Governors didn't take responsibility for taxes, but could claim credit for
programs using that money, without any governmental supervision or
interference.
11.When you send money to one, you have to send money to many.
12.Funding formulas skew funding towards states and cities with low
populations.
Meeting National Needs
1. Grants given to serve state purposes, but now based on national needs.
2. Rise in federal activism caused the increase of federal grants to local and
state governments.
3. Medicaid is 43% of national grants.
The Intergovernmental Lobby
1. State and local officials formed an important new lobby, the
intergovernmental lobby.
2. The purpose is to obtain more federal grants with fewer strings attached.
3. Government has become more complicated as a result of these many
organizations. Governing magazine has been issued to politicians to keep
them up to date with the latest trends.
Categorical Grants
1. Federal grants for specific purposes are called categorical grants.
2. The effort to have fewer strings caused a shifting from categorical to
block grants.
3. Three largest block grants (five altogether): cities, aid for local law
enforcement, and authorized locally managed programs for the
unemployed.
4. The amount of money didn't grow as fast as hoped nor as fast as
categorical.
5. Government steadily increased strings to "unrestricted" money.
6. Grants grew slower because of different political coalitions supporting
each other.
7. Federal officials tended to distrust state governments.
8. Block grants not as vital for different agencies to press for enlargement.
No single group, as it covers a broad range of activities.
Rivalry Between States
1. The more important grants become, the more competition there is.
2. Population, business, and income was once concentrated in the
Northeast, but is now shifted West, and South.
3. Grants based on distributional formulas.
Federal Aid And Federal Control
1. States feared that as the importance of grants increased, so would
government power over states.
2. Two kinds of strings.
3. Conditions of aid are terms set by the government that the states must
meet if they are to get any funds.
4. Mandates are terms which the states meet regardless of grants.
Mandates
1. States cannot discriminate. Some are reasonable enough.
2. But not all areas are equally affected. Mandates, especially those that
government forces on states, cause much grief.
3. A waiver is a decision by an administrative agency granting some party
permission to violate a law or admin. rule that would have otherwise
applied to it.
4. Not the only way costs are imposed on state and local governments;
federal tax and regulatory policies, federal laws exposing states to
liability, all cost state and local governments resources.
5. Federal courts have helped in the growth of mandates. The Tenth
Amendment doesn't offer protection from mandates.
6. Supreme Court has made it easier for citizens to control the behavior of
local officials.
7. Federal law passed to protect slaves, now used to protect citizens if an
official deprives them of anything they were entitled to under federal
law.
Conditions Of Aid
1. If you don't want the strings, don't take the money. But now states are
dependent on the grants.
2. Some conditions are specific to particular programs, but most aren't.
3. Congress developed uniform national policies, but states disagree,
because it fails to take into account diverse local conditions.
A Devolution Revolution?
1. Ronald Reagan attempted to minimize government. Less federal money,
with less strings.
2. Congress lead the effort of devolution, and gave more federal functions
to the states.
3. By 2006, government was spending $22,000 per year on each household;
more than ever before.
4. Devolution caused more regulations and rules.
5. Still had significant consequences.
Congress And Federalism
1. American politics remains local.
2. Organizations that linked members of Congress to local groups have
dissolved.
3. In some states, parties are still strong, but mostly, when people are
speaking "for" a city or state, they have little claim to any real authority.
4. Americans differ in which we like better, federal or local decisions. Most
poor would say federal, while those better off agree local.
5. This diversity keeps federalism alive. We don't agree enough to make a
unitary government possible.