Inkwell Institute
Professor’s Classroom
Subject: Political Theory/Government/American History
Now the question must be asked…..Why Federalism?
The Framers of the Constitution created a federal system with a national government strong enough to unify the states in their pursuit of common goals without completely robbing the states of their independence. If they had not done so, it is unlikely that the ratifying conventions in the several states would have approved the Constitution. Indeed, the inclusion of the federal principle in the Constitution was a critical factor in its ratification. The benefits of federalism, however, have reached far beyond the ratification debates.
Federalism contributes significantly to the protection of individual rights and liberties in this nation. While many of the opponents of the Constitution were fearful the national government would not respect the rights of the people, there have been several instances in which the national government has stepped in to stop the abuse of individual rights at the state level.
A noble sentiment, but unfortunately it has not done a very good job at protecting the people from abuses……..but that would depend on what we define as an abuse….it will be different in its meaning depending on what side of the political spectrum you stand….
But from the beginning it was more about property rights than the rights of the individual…..if it were all about protecting the people then the property would not have been slaves that they were concerned with…..that was a major problem because most of the people that favored federalism were slave owners and wanted the institution to continue.
Perhaps the most important contribution of federalism to this nation has been the experimentation and “policy borrowing” it has fostered. Because states are free to develop, among other things, their own educational, law enforcement and economic development policies, at any given time there are several different approaches being utilized in different states to address the same set of public policy problems. As the programs and policies implemented by states succeed or fail, other states can learn from them and adopt, or choose not to adopt, similar policies.
Given the ability of states to experiment with different approaches to the problems they face, former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called the states “laboratories of democracy.” In each of fifty “laboratories,” state policy makers can adopt “riskier” policies than a national policy maker would because when a program is implemented in only one state it can fail only in one state.
If only this was true….policy today is NOT made to help the people they are made to assure the continuance of the governing elite….
Another significant benefit of federalism is that it keeps many political leaders, the decisions they make and the implementation of public policy close to the people. Federalism, with its multiple levels of government, keeps government much closer to the people than would otherwise be possible.
It is a real shame that above statement, while sounding like a good thing has been anything but good for the people of the different states. What it has done is put the people second behind business interests and once that is done the premise of federalism being a concept that keeps the people close to government is nullified.
Whilst I agree with you, strong and successful businesses are an essential part of any capitalist system and do ultimately benefit the people because a strong economy not only increases wealth for most people, but increases job freedom. It’s not enough for the poor and most of us don’t get a fair share, but it is nevertheless generally a fact. Unions are (in my opinion) really only necessary or even a good idea when unemployment is high and they are counter-productive in the best interests of ordinary people in a bouyant economy where competition for labour is the very best regulator of all. As Bill Clinton so accurately said when talking about what the majority of the ordinary people cared most about – “It’s the economy, stupid!”
All that said, government – all government in all countries under all systems – is only EVER about the interests of the rich and powerful governing elite. Anything else is simply window dressing and, when you analyse it, almost total bullshit! 👿
Damn! Once again I wished I had said that……..while I may be a “good” Leftist….I do not see the benefits of unions….yes they put people to work….but their only aim is to make more money for the hierarchy….or else they would not give away the progress that the workers have made over the years….just a thought…..
You are so right. In the UK, in the 1970s and 80s, Arthur Scargill was, in my opinion, only interested in his own bigoted view of “labour versus the rich employers” and wanted to play politics. Basically, I think he wanted a communist state with him as some bigwig in it. His union members were coal miners and, for a number of perfectly valid reasons the coal mining industry was fading. So, whilst he still had power, he wanted to grind the rich and the politicians into the ground before it was too late.
To me, there never appeared to be any willingness on his part to face reality and seek a good “redundancy and retraining” deal for the workers whilst the industry still existed and I don’t think his members were any more than chess pieces to him. Consequently, he wound up in this huge fight with management and ultimately Maggie Thatcher and Parliament that he should have known he could not possibly win. In the meantime, his members and their families starved and the general public frequently had no coal for heating and no power since a lot of electricity was at the time generated with that fuel.
A few years prior to that, the electricity workers and the coal miners had got together and created a very similar situation when the whole country only worked three days a week for God knows how long whilst the dispute was on. When Scargill started again on Maggie Thatcher, she was ready for him and neither he nor his industry ever really got over the thrashing they took. What a jerk!
Thus, he held his members and the public to ransom whilst he created some of the bitterest disputes we’ve seen in the UK and his members mostly wound up with fuck all!
If you wrote this stuff in a sci-fi story, people would just laugh! 👿
Yep…look at the UAW…after years of struggling to get benefits for the workers….the union did all in its power to give back all advances the workers fought hard for…….I am all for strong unions…just not the puppets that we have now whose only real interests is a power trip using the workers as stepping stoones to the “ivory tower”…..