Blog #3

Both state and local government are meant to be for the people but they have different functions. In the textbook (on page 26), they introduce the idea of factions which I think is one way to look at it. The book defines the factions as “groups that pursue their own interests without cover for the interests without concern for the interests of society as a whole” (26). I think of state and local governments as factions of the federal government. Obviously, state and local governments care about society as a whole, but their main responsibility is to their state and it’s inhabitants while the federal government is responsible for not just a single state, but all the states. This is a very simplistic way of looking at it but there are a lot more details involved in distinguishing federal government from state and local government.

The Federal government is responsible for monetary concerns/issues, foreign commerce, treaties with other nations, war & safety, the postal system, etc. Their powers are limited though. They are unable to change state boundaries, tax state exports, impose religious tests, or pass laws that conflict with the Bill of Rights. State and local governments are responsible for conducting elections, regulating intrastate commerce, protecting public health, safety, and morals, and everything else the federal government doesn’t do. State and local governments are denied the power to tax imports and exports, monetary concerns/issues (“purse strings”), enter into treaties, impair a legal contract, and enter compacts with other states without congressional consent. Both federal and state and local governments have concurrent powers such as taxes (state and federal), the right to seize property, enforce laws, administer a judiciary, make and enforce laws, borrow and lend money, charter banks, and corporations, etc. James Madison wrote “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and infinite” (28). The states are responsible for their states and their people as factions of the federal government. Federal governments are meant to be the central government that serves the people. Some advantages of Federalism are the promotion of administrative efficiency, management of social and political conflict, encouragement of innovation, and maximization of political participation in government. Some disadvantages are that it sometimes presents problems in coordinating action across governments and boundaries, it’s involvement and policies sometimes encourage not only innovation but also obstruction and delay and result in ineffective national government programs and priorities. Also, though the federal system maximizes political participation in government, that broad participation also encourages “local biases inimical to national interests” (25).

State governments all work under the federal government. It’s the federal government's job to ensure that the state governments have everything they need to operate smoothly (finances, aid in crisis, etc). Sometimes, the federal government falls short. For example, during Hurricane Katrina, the federal government was very “slow to comprehend the magnitude of the disaster and at first responded in incremental fashion” (22). It took a lot to get the federal governments attention and aid. A current example of the federal government failing state and local governments is the Flint water crisis. Flint hasn’t had clean water since 2014 and the federal government hasn’t done much to help fix this issue. Another example of this was Arizona versus the federal government in the matter of illegal immigration. Arizona felt that the federal government hadn’t done enough to protect them from illegal immigration, so Governor Jan Brewer enacted the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act. The federal government and state government ended up going to court over the issue.  James Madison’s hope “was that the new Constitution would check interest with interest, class with class, faction with faction, and one branch of government with another in a harmonious system of mutual frustration” (26). The book also states that “Sometimes today there appears to be more frustration than harmony, but Madison’s dream did come true. The U.S. federal system is the longest-lived constitutional government on earth” (26). Though this system of government isn’t always ideal, it’s the best thing we have thus far.