"refers to the interactions of governmental units within the political system" (25-26). The basic federal structure of American government is derived from the Constitution which provides for a central national government with certain expressly or enumerated and implied powers and the states (and the people) with residual powers, as set forth in the 10th Amendment.
For historical reasons rooted in their colonial experience and the American revolution, the newly independent American states rejected unitary government in which the national government possesses all law-making and legal enforcement powers except which it expressly cedes to the states. They also abandoned as unworkable after a decade a confederate government under the Articles of Confederacy in which most powers were reserved to the states. Although until the 20th century the national government had very limited powers over domestic policy, wars, economic calamities and the increasing complexity of modern life led to an enormous expansion in the power and involvement of the federal government in domestic policy. The commissions referred to in the case study attempted to arrest and to some extent roll back that trend, but they failed basically because, as Frohnmayer said, "there is apparently no way . . . to get the federal government out of the national economic arena" (75). Moreover, a complex mosaic of cooperation and shared responsibilities by the federal, state and local governments has developed over many decades which could not be undone without doing irreparable damage to the positive features of the system. Grodzins pointed out that this sharing of powers and functions was supported by the decentralized disp
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