States And Federal Government example essay topic

Federalism, by definition, is the division of government authority between at least two levels of government. In the United States, authority is divided between the state and national government. "Advocates of a strong federal system believe that the state and local governments do not have the sophistication to deal with the major problems facing the country" (Encarta. com). Even before the Constitution was ratified, strong argument were made by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison in the Federalist Papers urging the inclusion of a federal form of government to replace the failed confederation. In Federalist Paper No. 9 Hamilton states, "This form of government is a convention by which several smaller states agree to become members of a large one, which they intend to form.

It is's kind of assemblage of societies that constitutes a new one, capable of increasing, by means of new associations, until they arrive to such a degree of power as to be able to provide for the security of a united body" (Usinfo. state. gov). The people of the United States needed a central government that was capable of holding certain powers over the states. Those who feared that the federal government would become too strong were assured by Madison in Federalist No. 14 that "in the first place it is to be remembered that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administrating laws... The subordinate governments, which can extend their care to all those other objects which can be separately provided for, will retain their due authority and activity" (Usinfo. state. gov). The "necessary and proper" clause was included in the Constitution to allow for an "active and powerful government". It is also known as the Elastic Clause and basically stated that the national government had the ability to pass any law that was necessary and proper to carry out national business.

John Marshall expanded the interpretation of the "necessary and proper" mainly through the Supreme Court decision in McCulloch vs. Maryland. His decision that a state could not tax an agency of the national government was not the only outcome of the court case. Marshall took the opportunity to say that even though it is not mentioned in the Constitution, the national government has the right to charter a national bank (Usinfo. state. gov). The first era of federalism is dual federalism.

Dual federalism is the belief that having separate and equally powerful levels of government is the best arrangement. One major leader during this era was Roger B. Tanned, who was the head of the Supreme Court. During this era, there was heated political debate on the issue of slavery. The Dred Scott vs. Sanford decision in 1857, this was the first decision to take powers away from the national government. During this time, the Civil War occurred (Nvcc. com). After the Civil War, with the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments became sources of power for the national government when it came to its jurisdiction over the states.

By passing laws against slavery and allowing "equal protection under the law", the national government gave itself the power to enforce those laws and therefore enhanced authority over the states. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and in Section 2 stated that "Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation". By adding Section 2 to the amendment, Congress was simply ensuring their supremacy over the state governments. Among other things, the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees "equal protection under the law" to all citizens. Since all citizens are guaranteed protection, it is left up to the national government to make sure all citizens are receiving these rights. Even though many thought that the Fourteenth Amendment meant that the Bill of Rights was nationalized, its interpretation by the Supreme Court was much different.

Just as in the Thirteenth Amendment, the Fourteenth in Section 5 is given the power to enforce the article. The Fifteenth Amendment gave the right to vote to former slaves and says that the right to vote cannot be denied on account of race, color, or previous condition or servitude. Just as in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth, the Fifteenth Amendment allows for enforcement of the law by Congress (Nvcc. edu). Dual federalism ended with the problems brought on by the Great Depression.

"Line an earthquake, the stock market crash of October 1929 cracked startlingly across the United States, the herald of a crisis that was to shake the American way of life to its foundations. The events of the ensuing decade opened a fissure across the landscape of American history" (Kennedy 10). During the New Deal, President Roosevelt needed to act drastically to solve the problem of the Great Depression. A new form of federalism came about known as marble cake federalism.

The federal government, led by Roosevelt, became more intrusive in what was typically the domain of state governments. Both the states and federal government would work more closely together and have specific responsibilities (Kennedy 45). Establishing federal relief and recovery programs such as the Agricultural Adjustment Act ( ) and the National Recovery Act (NRA), and reforming such localized institutions with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) resulted in a much greater involvement on the local level by the federal government. Public work programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps further brought the federal government into cities. Public policy became more of a sharing between state governments and the federal government. The federal government would provide money while the state governments would administer the programs (Badger 169-172).

Not with a bang, but a whimper, the New Deal panned out in 1938. Franklin Roosevelt's annual message to Congress in January 1939 was his first in which he did not propose new social and economic programs. "We have now passed the period of internal conflict in the launching of our program of social reform", he announced. "Our full energies may now be released to invigorate the processes of recovery in order to preserve our reforms" (Kennedy 73). After the New Deal, cooperative federalism increased greatly during and after World War II. When the country prepared itself for war, the federal government had to direct the citizens regarding essential services.

Immediately following the war, the federal government responded to the needs of the returning soldiers with the GI Bills of Rights. On June 22, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill of Rights. At first the subject of intense debate and parliamentary maneuvering, the famed legislation for veterans of World War II has since been recognized as one of the most important acts of Congress. The GI Bill provided six benefits: education and training, loan guaranty for a home, farm, or business, unemployment pay for up to 52 weeks, job-finding assistance, top priority for building materials for VA hospitals, and military review of dishonorable discharges (Hcl. chass. n csu. edu). During the 1960's, the United States experienced the Civil Rights Movement. Two Supreme Court cases, during this time, helped define the relationship between the states and the federal government.

In the first case, Heart of Atlanta Motel vs. U.S., A motel owner in Atlanta, Georgia who mostly served interstate travelers refused to allow African Americans to stay at the hotel in violation of the act. He claimed that Congress lacked the authority under the Commerce Clause to regulate his private business. This suit challenged Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned racial discrimination in public accommodations. The Supreme Court decided "The power of Congress to promote interstate commerce also includes the power to regulate the local incidents thereof, including local activities in both the States of origin and destination, which might have a substantial and harmful effect upon that commerce" (Landmarkcases. org).

Congress is allowed to influence both on the local and national level, giving the federal government more power. In the second case, Katzenbach vs. McClung, was decided along with Heart of Atlanta Motel vs. U.S. Ollie's Barbecue was a family-owned restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama. The restaurant owners had refused to serve Negroes in its dining accommodations since its original opening in 1927, and since July 2, 1964, had been operating in violation of the Civil Rights Act. The owners sued for declaratory relief to be able to continue its policy despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Court upheld those acts of Congress (Landmarkcases. org). This, once again, increased the power of the federal government over local affairs.

Following the New Deal and the Civil Rights Movement came the time of the Great Society and creative federalism. Creative federalism during the Great Society increased the marble cake approach of intergovernmental relations. This society was established by Lyndon Johnson, which provided an even greater reliance on federal programs. Two programs were Medicare and Medicaid.

"These are programs of medical care for the aged and for the needy, respectively, in the United States. The Medicare and Medicaid programs are under the direction of the United States Department of Health and Human Services" (Unger 145). Medicare benefits are divided into two parts: a basic hospital-insurance plan covering hospital care, extended care, home health services, and hospice care for terminally ill patients; and a voluntary medical-insurance program covering physicians' fees, outpatient services, and other medical services. Medicare costs are met by social security contributions, monthly premiums from participants, and general revenues (Unger 232). Medicaid furnishes at least five basic services to needy persons: inpatient hospital care, outpatient hospital care, physicians's ervices, skilled nursing-home services for adults, and laboratory and X-ray services. The people who are eligible include families and certain children who qualify for public assistance and may include aged, blind, and disabled adults (Unger 365).

Creative federalism soon came under the scrutiny of Richard Nixon. Nixon proposed a serious of measures aimed at decentralizing many of the Great Society programs of Lyndon Johnson. He dubbed his program "the new federalism". This theme was later picked up by Ronald Reagan in 1980 and became the hallmark of his administration. The aim of this new competitive federalism was to offer states part of the marble cake but to have them accept it with conditions and with a promise to develop programs of their own. The states were given much more responsibility (Small 110-111).

Two acts were passed during the time of Johnson and were later enforced by Nixon differently. The first act, the Clean Air Act of 1970, set national standards for air quality. Under competitive federalism, the states were now held responsible that the laws created under this act were implemented and enforced. The second act, the Emergency Highway Act of 1974, provided funding for highways. Under competitive federalism, the states had to agree to limit highway speed limits to fifty-five miles per hour in order to receive federal funds for highway repair (Nixon foundation. org). The idea under competitive federalism was that if a state was going to receive federal money, it must agree to do something in return.

During the 1980's, the scope of federal programs aiding local interests decreased greatly. The Supreme Court of the United States has been reversing the trend of federalism and giving powers back to the states. The main reason is due to the fact that Reagan appointed William Rehnquist as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Findlaw. com). Like Rehnquist, Reagan also appointed three other judges that had similar ideas and philosophies of how government should govern.

Following Reagan's plan for devolution, Rehnquist's decisions enhanced the powers of the states. The case of United States vs. Lopez in 1994 decided that the national government could not place a law on citizens carrying guns in gun free school zones. While at first this seems like a stupid decision by the Supreme Court, actually they are allowing the states to set their own regulations on the carrying of firearms in a gun free school zone. Another big case that granted more power to the states was Roe vs. Wade. The decision in this case gave each state the right to regulate abortion. Even though each decision by itself seems small, as more and more cases are decided in favor of state rights, the balance of power starts to swing back toward the states (Findlaw. com).

The development of federalism since the New Deal has been fiscal. This means how much funding the federal government to the states, under what conditions, appropriates and what the states can do with these funds. Fiscal federalism can be classified into three different types of grants. They are categorical grants, block grants, and revenue sharing (Min. net). Categorical grants are federal aid that meets the criteria of a specific category and has specific criteria attached to them. Block grants are federal aid that goes to local communities for specific purposes and the states can decide where and how to spend the money.

Revenue sharing gives money directly to the states with no strings attached (Min. net). After the election of 1992, deficit reduction became a primary goal of President Clinton. After Congress approved his budget proposal, it became apparent that fiscal federalism and grant programs would be greatly affected. Clinton now shifted his focus on cleaning up federal mandates and working on welfare reform. Federal mandates have caused many problems. These mandates force the states to abide to the dictates of the federal government in order to get aid.

Unfunded mandates impose obligations on states without providing any funding. President Clinton signed the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of 1995. Unfunded federal mandates and highly prescriptive federal programs have backed many states and localities into a fiscal corner, forcing them to sacrifice their own programs and priorities in order to comply with standards set by a distant federal government. This act places major restrictions on Congress's ability to pass legislation and restrictions that have a price tag for the states. (Cato. org). Welfare reform has also become a huge issue in the United States.

States now have the right to decide how long someone can stay on welfare and the amount that that person receives. This is one more way that the national government has allowed the states to gain more power. Many national programs were eliminated or changed by the Welfare Reform Act, such as Aid to Families with Dependant Children, and the Food Stamp Program. Child welfare and child protection programs kept funding during the whole process.

Mandates granted to states that act in ways desirable to the national government in the Welfare Reform Act get more funding. It also said that states could not allow people to stay on welfare for more than five years (House Committee 139-140). The future of federalism seems unclear. After the election of 1994, the Republican Contract with America clearly signaled a return to a more traditional approach.

This trend continued when the Republicans maintained their majority in both houses in the 1996 election. Such measures as more welfare reform, a balanced budget, and regulatory reform were introduced specifically to downsize government and return power to the states. Many of the parts of the Republican Contract have been passed by one or both house but never signed by the President. However, now with a Republican president is power, the passage of the ideas proposed in the Republican Contract seem to be high on the Republican agenda. Work Cited Badger, Anthony J. The New Deal. New York: The Noonday Press, 1989.

House Committee in U.S. Congress. Welfare Reform. Washington: U.S.G.O.P., 2002. Kennedy, David M. Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Small, Melvin.

The Presidency of Richard Nixon. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas., 1999. Unger, Irwin. A Life: LBJ.

New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999. The Federalist Papers. 2003. Department of State. 21 April 2003. Civil War Amendments.

2003. Northern Virginia Community College. 21 April 2003. GI Bill of Rights.

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22 April 2003... Federalism. 2003. Encarta Microsoft Incorporation.

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