Understanding Federalism: The Benefits and Compromises

The Compromises Involved in Establishing the Federal System

Task:

At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, advocates of a strong national government debated states’ rights proponents. This debate continued throughout the ratifying conventions in several states. The resulting federal system was therefore one of many compromises. Supporters of the new Constitution were political pragmatists they realized that without a federal arrangement, the new Constitution would not be ratified. Federalism retained state traditions and local power while establishing a strong national government capable of handling common problems. Even if colonial leaders had agreed on the desirability of a unitary system, size and regional isolation would have made such a system difficult in practice. At the time of the Constitutional Convention, the 13 colonies were much larger geographically than England or France. Slow travel and communication contributed to the feeling of isolation in many regions within the colonies. It could take several weeks for all of the colonies to be informed about a particular political decision.

A federal form of government that delegates certain functions to the states or provinces made sense. Finally, federalism brings government closer to the people. Not only can local or state governments adopt policies that speak specifically to local or regional needs, the people in those communities have more immediate access to public officials. Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at the stability of public life in America. Government authority shared between the central government and the many states allows the people to exert direct influence over political decisions and indeed to seek political office themselves. There are more than 500,000 elected positions in the United States, and 96 percent of those are at the state or local level. Benefits for the United States In the United States, federalism has yielded many benefits. State governments long have been a training ground for future national leaders. Many presidents first made their political mark as governors. The states have been testing grounds for new government initiatives.

As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once observed: “It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” Examples of programs pioneered at the state level include unemployment compensation, begun in Wisconsin, and air pollution control, initiated in California. Statewide health-care plans pioneered in Hawaii and Massachusetts provided models for the Affordable Care Act. Today, states are experimenting with policies initiating education reforms, legalizing recreational marijuana use, and implementing environmental protection measures. States in the West are highly attuned to water politics and drought conditions that affect local economies. The states have employed a variety of different strategies for dealing with the recession and home mortgage crisis—both national problems, but experienced differently across the states. Some states focused on attracting new industries, whereas others invested in education and training opportunities for their residents. Indeed, states have widely different schemes for financing government and provision of public services. As shown in Figure 3-2, seven states do not have an income tax (making them magnets for retirees) and five states do not have a sales tax.