American Federalism: A Century of Change and Questions - Research Paper

Introduction

American federalism has undergone various changes since its founding, the changes have created a new look we have shaped the current federal system, and it continues to shape the future. The changes have raised some concerns which Christian statesmanship responds to it some ways. Looking at the twentieth century, America, which comprises of 45 States is seen where some questions which were debated by the Congress ranged from territorial expansion and tariffs. In this century, federalism was dual, while the progressive era was starting with the closure of the American frontier (Bowling and Pickerill, 2013, 317). The cash-grant programs that were transferring funds to States from then federal governments were only five. There existed a long distance between the two governments. Then events that alter the system, including prolonged economic depression, the two world wars, and urban race riots, affected federalism in America. The paper examines the responses of a Christian statesman in changes in American federalism. Thus, to get answers to the question, a literature review on changes in federalism is examined and then analysis of the Christian statesman response to the changes.

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Christian statesman is a leader or administrator who applies biblical scriptures and principles in crafting and administering a public policy. He is someone whose love for a country and commitment to God compels him to stand for righteousness and truth in the government. A Christian statesman knows that people must give credit to God and must depend on him for success and prosperity; hence, they believe that by holding faith, virtue, and hope they can lead in the right way.

The changes in federalism resulted in profound changes in the domain of federal government where mandates and preemption become common tools of intergovernmental relations (O'Toole and Christensen 2012, 39). The aid of the federal government in the form of finance to both State and Local governments increased, and new administrative links that happened across levels of government were generated by an enormous increase in several grants that involved intergovernmental systems (Conlan and Posner, 2016, 298). New forms were introduced and taken by regional competition between Sunbelt and Frostbelt areas of the nation. Then, State governments took place in various institutional reforms to increase their governance capacity. Towards the end of what was referred to as the American Century, there were a lot of complexities in the federal system. The complexity was more than the time of founding the system. In the year 2001, the federal system has changed to allocate few functions to one level of government, which resulted in calling for sorting out of several functions that belonged to federal and State Governments (Bowling and Pickerill, 2013, 319). These reforms and changes peers into the future of American federalism, an exercise that has to be undertaken with caution.

The United States of America is trying its best to find its role in the world, which is increasingly complicated and where there is a diffusion of power and where about everything is independent. The federal government is facing many challenges that have to be addressed and requires a new way of thinking concerning the roles of both federal and States Governments (Bowling and Pickerill, 2013, 317). The new-look is taken because of global interdependence, the need for significant policy changes to revitalize the economy, and due to fiscal stress that is experienced at all levels of government.

A Christian Statesman seeks civil peace and a measure of justice through the pursuit of the biblical notion that advocates for justice. The Christian statesman responds to the problems which are brought by changes in federalism through first recognizing any form of injustice which is caused by the changes and bad policies that accompany the changes, then seek the remedy by advocating for a policy that is more of human. A Christian Statesman can only pursue the justice response and govern justly by being virtuous, which prevents their reasons from being corrupted and must rule according to the law as God's commands are reflected by obedience to the law (Grenda, 2018, 212). It is through the respect of regulation, Christian statesmen can desire for replacement and revision of laws that are bad in proper place and time. They consider the virtue of prudence, which the ability to apply the correct principle to a unique individual circumstance, and in that process, the Christian statesman can undergo suffering caused by resistance to unjust laws.

Literature Review

Federalism in America has drastically changed since its genesis. The thirteen colonies in 1776 adopted the Articles of Confederation to assist in coordinating their efforts during the war for independence (Bowling and Pickerill, 2013, 317). The Article bound States into military and foreign affairs, which later led to the creation of federalism. The role of federalism expanded with Supreme Court backing the change by allowing the federal government to create new boundaries to include more areas.

The evolution of United States federalism has gone through three stages, which are dual federalism, cooperative federalism, and the new federalism. The dual federalism was ushered in the late 1870s, where both federal and State governments are clearly defined, and no blend as each level enjoyed exclusive authority (Bowling and Pickerill, 2013, 317). The rise of this type of federalism was initiated by several Supreme Court rulings, which blocked the idea of the government levels to act outside their jurisdictional boundaries; secondly, it emerged because of the prevailing economic philosophy at that time, which loathed the interference of government in industrial development. The rise of industrialization affected the United States' socioeconomic landscape, which leads to the concentration of market power, where firms colluded in various industries to form cartels because there was no national supervision that could regulate. Dual federalism made sure that each level of government has its responsibilities for matters that can be directly addressed at all levels. States handled most roles themselves, whereas the Federal Government dealt with interstate commerce and the national defense.

The second federalism that followed was cooperative federalism that emerged after the great depression of the 1930s, which brought economic hardships as industrial output dropped with rising in the unemployment rate. The national government was pressurized to coordinate a federal response, which is robust with the State governments. This federalism emerged out of necessity, and it lasted into the twentieth century (Behnke, 2018, 17). Both federal and State governments found this federalism beneficial as both coordinated their roles to solve the problems experienced by the country at the national level, which are civil rights struggle and the great depression. It differs from the dual federalism on its nature as it eradicated the idea of jurisdictional boundaries that existed between the federal and State governments resulting in a blending of layers. The national authority has undergone gradual incursion into a domain of judicial States, and the power of the federal government expanded in concurrent policy areas. In the 1960s under President Lyndon Johnson, his administration expanded the role of the Federal Government in the society to a greater extent where Medicare, Medicaid, and programs tailored to school nutrition were established. The federal government formulated most of the programs, and most of them are left to States to implement.

The cooperative federalism era left two notable attributes to U.S federalism. The federal legislature activism leads to the nationalization of politics as it aimed at federal problems, which are poverty, political and social inequality, and market place inefficiencies. The nationalization increased grants offered by federal to State and local governments and expanded the administrative apparatus of the federal Government (Behnke, 2018, 20). The second attribute is flexibility granted to the local and State governments in the process of implementing the national government programs relating to social welfare. The attribute of flexibility in administration resulted in differences between States in the levels of coverage and benefits. In cooperative federalism, States were depending on federal governments for a grant to support programs and to administer the federal programs. Then State governments became dependent on the national government to administer many programs that created a cooperative federalism subset known as creative federalism, which favors the national government, creating a sense of dependency on the Federal Government. The creative federalism weakened the powers of States through their dependence on grants. The federal government, through this federalism, wins the tug-of-war.

New federalism emerged after the attempts of President Nixon in the year 1969-1974 and President Reagan in 1981-1989 to reverse the process of nationalization. They wanted to restore the prominence of policy areas to State governments which were moved to the Federal Government in the past. The era of the new federalism rests on the idea that policy decentralization will improve administrative efficiency, improves the outcomes of policies, and reduction of the aggregate public spending. General revenue sharing was introduced in the regime of President Nixon, which aimed at funds distribution to both State and local governments with minimal spending restrictions. Then-President Ronal Reagan introduced the idea of devolution revolution in American federalism, where he insisted return of authority back to the States as the constitution of the United States illustrates. The President, together with some leaders of Congress, consolidated some grant programs of the Federal Government that relates to social welfare. They reformulated the programs to provide further discretion of utilizing federal funds to State and local governments. President Reagan's goal of promoting new federalism became inconsistent because of opposition from some Democrats legislatures in the Congress, interest groups, and moderate republicans, which prevented his ambitions of devolution and agenda, and he was prevented from formulating further advances (Behnke, 2018, 25). The President wanted to devolve food stamps and aid given to families with dependent children programs to states but was vehemently opposed by the National Governor's Association stating the programs will be costly to the State governments, and some members of Congress feared that the States will underfund the programs. However, there are many claims that the new federalism has gone back to the increasingly central federal power through the creation of some departments like the Department of Homeland Security, which nationalized disaster response in Washington. Then security at the airport was federalized through the creation of Transportation Security Administration. New federalism is based on devolution, which political philosophy, and it allowed the tug-of-war to shift toward States. This federalism responded to the argument that the national government has grown too powerful to an extent it has overshadowed the States primary responsibilities.

Morton Grodzins (1966, 14) studied the evolution of federalism in the 1950s in which, at that time, most academicians thought the United States federalism as a layer cake. Grodzins thought that in the 1930s, marble-cake federalism was ushered in which the levels of governments mostly was a representation of a three-layer cake. The government levels were like an...