Review

The Federal Framework

State and local governments play such important roles in the lives of American citizens because the United States is a federal system in which other levels of government are assigned considerable responsibility. The enduring significance of state and local governments reflects the founders’ distrust of centralized power.

I. How does a federal system differ from other forms of government?

• The national government has played an increasingly more prominent role in protecting liberty and promoting equality in our lives since the Great Depression.
• As a result, the vast majority of government responsibilities are now shared by the national and state governments.
• By funding social welfare programs and setting national standards, the federal government helps limit inequality across the states.
• A federal system is one in which powers of government are shared by the national government and the state governments.

II. How does federalism limit the power of the national government?

• The national government is given certain “expressed powers,” which can be found in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution.
• However, the seventeen expressed powers are enhanced by the implied powers, which are based on the necessary and proper clause.
• The AntiFederalists pushed for and got the Tenth Amendment, which states that any powers not granted to the national government are reserved to the states or to the people.
  • The powers reserved to the states are generally referred to as the “police powers,” which gives the states the power to regulate the health, safety, welfare, and morality of the residents of the state.
• Some of the powers of the national government are shared with the states and are said to be concurrent powers (e.g., tax, borrow).
• The Constitution attempts to promote national unity through Article IV and the “Full Faith and Credit” provision, which provides that the civil acts (e.g., marriage and divorce) are recognized in other states.
• Local governments are omitted from the Constitution—deferring such matters to the state constitutions.
• Some argue that state governments are closer to the people and should have more responsibilities.
  • They also argue that allowing states to handle problems gives them the flexibility to deal with their specific problems in a way that best reflects the values of the people of that state.

III. How strong a role have the states traditionally had in the federal framework?

• The Constitution created two layers of government: the national governments and the state governments, which is referred to as dual federalism.
• Under dual federalism, the federal government was quite small compared to the state governments and other national governments in western Europe.
• Virtually all of its functions were aimed at helping US commercial interests and had little direct impact on individual citizens.

IV. How did the traditional system change over time?

• The traditional system remained in place for the first 100 years, despite economic forces favoring the expansion of national powers.
• The U.S. Supreme Court recognized the powers of the national government in McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden , but economic regulation would remain limited since most commerce before the 20 th century took place within states.
  • In McCulloch v Maryland, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress had implied powers based on the “necessary and proper” clause of the Constitution.
  • In Gibbons v Ogden, the Court expanded the powers of Congress by defining commerce broadly (“every species of commercial intercourse”) and giving the national government supremacy in all areas of all interstate commerce.
• In 1937 the U.S. Supreme Court used the interstate commerce clause to expand the powers of the national government even further.
  • Even companies that were only indirectly involved in interstate commerce could now be regulated by Congress.
  • Congress used this new power to protect workers, giving workers the right to form unions, and to regulate working conditions such as minimum wage and minimum age.
• After the Civil War, states rights arguments were voiced less often, but the Supreme Court continued to use the Tenth Amendment to strike down laws that it felt exceeded national power, such as the 1875 Civil Rights Act.
  • In the 1990s, the Supreme Court revitalized the Tenth Amendment in the case of U.S. v. Lopez when the court ruled that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority when it banned handguns near public schools, since simply having a gun was NOT an act of commerce and could not be regulated by congress.
  • Recent Supreme Court rulings, including one where the Court ruled that Nevada had to abide by the Family and Medical Leave Act, have muddied the water on where state and federal prerogatives clash.

Who Does What? The Changing Federal Framework

I. Why did the balance of responsibility shift toward the national government in the 1930s?

• State governments were unable to deal with the effects of the Great Depression, and, as a result, demands were made on the national government to respond to the crisis.
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, which inevitably led to an increase in the power of the national government.

II. What means does the national government use to control the actions of the states?

• Federal grants-in-aid with strings attached are one means of control over the states.
  • Federal grants-in-aid have increased from $2.3 billion in 1950 to $387 billion in 2003.
• Cooperative efforts between the national government and the states have contributed to increased national power.
• Expanded federal regulatory power also increased the dominance of the national government over the states.
• Congress has also used unfunded mandates and federal preemption to exercise power over the states.

III. How has the relationship between the national government and states evolved over the last several decades?

• President Nixon began an effort to return power back to the states—New Federalism—through the use of block grants and revenue sharing.
• President Reagan, the former Governor of California, attempted to return control over many programs to the states and to implement deregulation.
• President Clinton (another former governor), continued this trend when he signed the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, which changed Welfare into a block grant that gave states more control over welfare spending.

IV. What methods have been employed to give more control back to the states?

• Nixon used block grants and general revenue sharing to return control to the states.
• Another way to reduce the role of the national government is to reduce federal spending.
  • Reagan’s block grants cut federal funding by 12 percent.
• One major problem with devolving authority is accountability.

V. Devolution: For Whose Benefit?

• Many argue that “New Federalism” or “Devolution” is a recipe for disaster—a race to the bottom—in which there is no incentive for states to provide for environmental regulations or social welfare.
  • The fact that the number of people receiving (federally controlled) food stamps rose much more than the number of people on (state controlled) welfare suggests that the federal government is more responsive to increased needs during recessions.
• On the other hand, states can act as “laboratories of democracy,” by experimenting with different approaches to similar problems.

Thinking Critically about Liberty Versus Equality

I. How do changes in American federalism reflect different interpretations of liberty, equality, and democracy?

• Ideas about federalism are linked to different views about the purposes of government.
• The framers were suspicious about federal power based on their experience with Britain.
• Americans are still suspicious of “big government,” but we have come to realize that the national government can be an important guarantor of liberty.
• One of the most important arguments for a stronger national government is its role in ensuring equality.
• A key issue of federalism is deciding when differences between states represent proper democratic decisions and when such differences represent inequalities that should not be tolerated.
• The growth of national powers is a function of our changing beliefs in the values of liberty, equality, and democracy.
• A stronger national government was necessary to ensure that state and local governments adhered to the Bill of Rights.