American Concept of Federalism
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The American concept of federalism implies balance. Without a careful balance between the powers and duties allocated to the central government and the governments of the states, there is no federalism. Recent critics of the state of American federalism maintain that this balance has been disrupted by the excessive powers allocated to the central government, at the expense of the states. Both President Clinton and the Republican-dominated Congress favor restoring the states' dominion over various functions. Yet, though it is certainly correct to say that American federalism is out of balance, the current proposals go too far in the other direction. Rather than restoring balance, they simply overbalance on the other side. Their interpretations of the Tenth Amendment increase the confusion over states' rights, and their attempts to empower the states are destined to transfer management problems from the central government to the state governments. Welfare "reform" is a good example of the latter. The so-called new federalism of the 1990s is a recipe for governmental inefficiency. The bad management of which Washington is accused, will be multiplied by 50, or more, if the plans of the new federalists are enacted. So-called new federalism is, too often, simple Washington-bashing--one of many items on politicians' agendas that, along with so-called tort reform, term limits and other items, makes a broad appeal to discontented voters, while actually running counter to th
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urisdiction of local law enforcement. The dissenting minority in the case made tenuous arguments based on Congress' right to regulate the matter under the Commerce clause, which allows the central government to regulate any matters involving interstate commerce. Such justifications have become extremely farfetched as the Court has tried for decades to bring a variety of legislation within the jurisdiction of Congress. These justifications have been correctly described as the "artful stretching of both logic and law," and the Court's avoidance of such strategies in Lopez looked promising for the restoration of federalist balance.
Federalists should also applaud the decision of the Court in the case of U. S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1995) in which the Court ruled that an amendment to the Arkansas state constitution was unconstitutional. The amendment specified term limits for Arkansas' Congressional delegation. But the Court ruled that the qualifications for members of Congress are given in the Constitution and "the states retain no residual power to add or subtract from them." Yet, the new federalists emphatically reject this decision as an example of balanced federalism. As Du Pont puts it, "it is difficult to bel
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Amendment Thomas, Tenth Amendment, Supreme Court, Lopez Court, Congressional Republicans, Todd Whitman, America Republican, Michigan Engler, Evan Bayh, , central government, term limits, tenth amendment, welfare reform, province central government, states' rights, court ruled, province central, american federalism, so-called federalism, welfare system, tenth amendment thomas, reform welfare system, central government governments, allocated central government,
Approximate Word count = 1914
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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