If federalism is about protecting the states, why not listen to them? In the last decade, the Supreme Court has reworked significant areas of constitutional law with the professed purpose of protecting the dignity and authority of the states, while frequently disregarding the states'' views as to what federalism is all about. The Court, according to the states, is protecting federalism too much and too little. Too much, in striking down federal law where even the states recognize that a federal role is necessary to address a national problem. Too little, in inappropriately limiting state experimentation. By listening more carefully to the States, the Supreme Court could transform its federalism jurisprudence from a source of criticism and polarization to a doctrine that should win broad support from across the political spectrum. In this important book, six distinguished authors redefine federalism and reaffirm Justice Louis Brandeis's vision of states and localities as the laboratories of democracy.
Federalism has become a highly politicized term in environmental law, with some parties having adopted the term to signify an ideology of devolving federal authority over environmental protection back to the states. In this Article, the author argues that from the states' perspective, the U.S. Supreme Court is using federalism both too much and too little. Too much, in striking down federal law where even the states recognize that a federal role is necessary to address a national problem. Too little, in inappropriately limiting state experimentation. By listening more carefully to the states, the author argues that the Court could transform its federalism jurisprudence from a source of criticism and polarization to a doctrine that should win broad support from across the political spectrum.
Federalism is at once a set of institutions -- the division of public authority between two or more constitutionally defined orders of government -- and a set of ideas which underpin such institutions. As an idea, federalism points us to issues such as shared and divided sovereignty, multiple loyalties and identities, and governance through multi-level institutions. Seen in this more complex way, federalism is deeply relevant to a wide range of issues facing contemporary societies. Global forces -- economic and social -- are forcing a rethinking of the role of the central state, with power and authority diffusing both downwards to local and state institutions and upwards to supranational bodies. Economic restructuring is altering relationships within countries, as well as the relationships of countries with each other. At a societal level, the recent growth of ethnic and regional nationalisms -- most dramatically in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, but also in many other countries in western Europe and North America -- is forcing a rethinking of the relationship between state and nation, and of the meaning and content of 'citizenship.' Rethinking Federalism explores the power and relevance of federalism in the contemporary world, and provides a wide-ranging assessment of its strengths, weaknesses, and potential in a variety of contexts. Interdisciplinary in its approach, it brings together leading scholars from law, economics, sociology, and political science, many of whom draw on their own extensive involvement in the public policy process. Among the contributors, each writing with the authority of experience, are Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa and Jacques Pelkmans on the European Union, Paul Chartrand on Aboriginal rights, Samuel Beer on North American federalism, Alan Cairns on identity, and Vsevolod Vasiliev on citizenship after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The themes refracted through these different disciplines and political perspectives include nationalism, minority protection, representation, and economic integration. The message throughout this volume is that federalism is not enough -- rights protection and representation are also of fundamental importance in designing multi-level governments.
In this timely book, Carol S. Weissert proves that federalism is highly relevant to the modern world and worthy of deeper academic study. Highlighting the dynamic nature of federalism, this book focuses on linking scholarship to the policy and politics of federalism in the US and across the world.
Understanding federalism is central to the study of democratic government in the United States. This book examines the historical and philosophical underpinnings of federalism; and the ways in which institutional political power is both diffused and concentrated in the United States.
In the ongoing struggle between those favoring centralized and those favoring decentralized government, health care policy is an important issue. This book has three goals: (1) to illustrate how theories of federalism and intergovernmental relations can provide a useful framework for examining how to "divide up the job" in the health care area, (2) to assess the capacity of the states to actually implement health care policy changes, and (3) to weigh the merits of alternative visions of the future role of states and the federal government in health care policy.
