Federal Dollars To Localities And States example essay topic

The Government Should Make Use of Revenue Sharing Federal grants have become more common over the last 60 years, due to the expansion and retraction of the size of the federal government. The federal government began expanding in the 1930's to deal with the Depression. It used federal agencies to directly deal with problems. As time went on, the tasks were turned over to the states, but the federal government still remained involved through the use of federal grants to states and localities. In the 1970's, Nixon's New Federalism put a heavy emphasis on federal grants.

Revenue sharing gave federal dollars to localities and states that had never received very much or any federal money before. This increased local interest in receiving federal money in many localities. In order to deal with the federal bureaucracy and receive federal money, localities and states have to develop efficient and effective bureaucracies of their own. These state and local bureaucracies must understand the federal rules and requirements for receiving federal aid.

Some states routinely receive a greater amount of federal money than other states with similar populations due to the differences in state bureaucracies. The state which hasan effective grant-writing bureaucracy and maintains relations with federal bureaucrats and leaders is often able to get more money. Federal bureaucracies are often very regional ized. They are staffed by people from a certain region, and they primarily deal with people from that region. They give more federal assistance to these regions too. The overall trend in federal spending in a state may be different from a particular agency's pattern of spending.

Some states may get very little overall federal funding, but may get much more than the average amount of money from a certain federal agency's grants. American state-level politics can be divided up into 3 categories: traditional, moralistic, and individualistic. Traditional areas are heavily elitist, and social elites are the primary leaders of society. They have less reliance on government programs, government spending, and government in general. They are not as democratic as in other areas of the country. Moralistic cultures put a heavy focus on government taking an active role in society.

There is more emphasis on democratic methods in government, government funding, government programs, and the provision of services. The individualist culture sees government as only being important when it can help the individual succeed. It should never hamper the individual from attaining personnel success. The South is considered more traditionalist. The mid atlantic states and other areas which have descendants of the original settlers of the mid atlantic states a reconsidered individualistic. The northern states are moralistic.

All of these political cultures influences the state governments in their areas. The states with the moralistic culture are more likely to have a responsive bureaucracy that knows how to get federal grant money and services, while the others are less likely to have this ability. Although general trends can be established, they are not without irregularities. Some states do not follow the trends of their region, and may contradict it. For example, Louisiana provides a relatively high amount of unemployment benefits to its residents, while other southern states do not. A state may have a very responsive agriculture department which can obtain federal dollars and assist farmers, but have few other agencies in state government which do the same in other fields.

The national government should make more use of revenue sharing than it does now. Revenue sharing will prevent many of the disparities found in federal funding. States with small populations now receive more federal money per capita than states with large populations, possibly due to their having higher representation in the Senate. The elimination of this disparity in funding is needed in order to ensure adequate funding of all states.