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... new to their representatives in Congress and there was as Caraley calls it, a politics of stalemate Reagan was unable to fully change the financial burden onto the states because the states were incapable of being financially independent. Reagan's welfare proposals were not seen as the most efficient way of dealing with the situation when considered by more than one component in the arena. So, through the division of power there are checks and balances between the levels of government. Reagan's motive was more economic in order to reduce the amount of federal spending. If Reagan had achieved his objective of changing the welfare burden, then there would be problems of income distribution because the states or municipalities with a high proportion of poorer people would find it impossible to provide welfare because of the low taxable base in the population.
Taxes would spiral in order to pay the welfare bill with the burden placed on the wealthier and smaller part of the population. If this were the case then there would be an enticement for rich people to move to areas with lower levels of taxation and this would cause further problems for the poor areas to provide welfare and services. This can be seen from examining data from 1980 when Newark, Baltimore, Buffalo, San Francisco, New York City and Milwaukee had between fifty and sixty percent of their expenditure funded by federal and state aid. If this aid was not to continue then it would place these municipalities in an impractical situation with decreasing levels of welfare and services. But, how does this constitute good government? Striving toward an equal distribution of income and wealth is an objective for the government and would be an objective for those members of society with a social conscience and I implicitly assume that these members of society are in the majority.
The equal distribution of wealth, provided that it reflects the aspirations of the people is another component of good government. This example also shows that there cannot be a simple division of power to solve the problem of the allotment of fiscal resources, but that it is always changing and there are different interactions providing solutions to the situation. The most efficient method evolves through the interaction between all of the levels in the vertical division and for a particular policy, one level of government emerges as the superlative to implement it. The issue of firearms in America provides an interesting example of federal and state relations. One of the aspects of good governance referred to in the definition is law and order enforcement.
If those with firearms are not using them in the appropriate way, then a serious law and order problem arises. The expansion of the federal role was based on the inter-state commerce clause of the Constitution, which allows for the regulation of activities that have an effect on commerce between states. In the case of United States v. Lopez (1995) the Supreme Court dismissed the fact that guns effected commerce near schools. This case was in response to the 1990 Gun free schools Act, based on the premise that guns result in crime and crime effects the economy. This predicament has two interesting points.
Firstly, if the majority of the people desire no gun control and this has adverse consequences, then how can this reconcile with law and order being a requirement of good governance? The majority desires of the citizens should in most cases be adhered to but only on the proviso that an anarchic situation does not result and a stable society is maintained. Secondly, is it right that the Supreme Court can strike down a law made in Congress? Congress should be the representative of the will of the people, that is the collective will of the desires of the undifferentiated people of the US. If any level of government oversteps the level given by the Constitution then it is curbed. The outcome of this situation seems alien coming from our British political perspective.
The firearms issue shows an important feature of the system in that there are checks and balances, which should provide efficient government. Checks and balances are not an obstruction they ensure that the most effective policy is implemented. The difficulty in this scenario arises from the fact that there is no Constitutional basis for a federal ruling on fire arms, but it is up to the states to adopt their own law. Each state therefore has a strength in analysing its particular predicament and can respond accordingly to its own situation. There are certain policies more suited to execution on a smaller scale than on a federal scale in a country as large as the US.
A prime example of this is urban policy and it is the execution of this policy on a state and municipal level that provides more efficient governance than if policy was attempted at the federal level. Local government can react to specific local needs when provided with federal aid. 1978 was a peak year of direct federal aid to localities with community development being a major category. This helped problems in the major cities. In Baltimore there were problems of inner-city economic and social deprivation caused by the change in the industrial base of the city resulting in unemployment and its associated social repercussions. A water front development project was devised in order to help these problems and to bring prosperity back to the core of the city.
This project was successful in reversing the effects of Baltimore becoming a doughnut city with no prosperity at the core of the city. The division of power does not obstruct efficient policy implementation. Effective governance is provided by a combination of local knowledge of the problems and federal finance. Federal aid is needed because of the problem of a low taxable base in poor areas, which if there was no federal aid would result in a smaller revenue and fewer services provided. In summary, the federal division of powers does not provide an effective obstruction to good governance in the US. This is clearly shown by the interaction between different levels of government that formulate the best possible method of dealing with various problems.
It is dependent on the time and on the issue. A large federal power is needed in modern times because of the integrated nature of the economy. James Bryce, a nineteenth century critic, believed that federalism made matters worse because of the dispersal of authority. In objection to this suggestion the nature of the co-operation and power sharing between the different levels of government shows that federal division provides an effective path to good governance.
There are obviously occasions when there is confusion between the governments but it is precisely this path toward good governance that is the objective of the governments and this path is not obstructed by the division of power. Brisbin, R. , "The Reconstitution of American Federalism? The Rehnquist Court and Federal-State Relations, 1991 - 1997 ", Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 28, 1, 1998 Caraley, D. , "Changing Conceptions of Federalism", Political Science Quarterly, 101, 2, 1986 Conlan, Timothy, New Federalism: Intergovernmental Reform from Nixon to Reagan, 1988 Elazar, Daniel, American Federalism: A View from the States, (2 nd ed. ) 1972 Reagan, Michael and Sanzone, John, The New Federalism, 1981 Watts, R. , "The American Constitution in Comparative Perspective: A Comparison of Federalism in the US and Canada", Journal of American History, 1987 Bibliography: Bibliography: Brisbin, R. , "The Reconstitution of American Federalism? The Rehnquist Court and Federal-State Relations, 1991 - 1997 ", Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 28, 1, 1998 Caraley, D. , "Changing Conceptions of Federalism", Political Science Quarterly, 101, 2, 1986 Conlan, Timothy, New Federalism: Intergovernmental Reform from Nixon to Reagan, 1988 Elazar, Daniel, American Federalism: A View from the States, (2 nd ed. ) 1972 Reagan, Michael and Sanzone, John, The New Federalism, 1981 Watts, R. , "The American Constitution in Comparative Perspective: A Comparison of Federalism in the US and Canada", Journal of American History, 1987
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Research essay sample on Political Science Quarterly Federal Aid
