American Government and Politics Today, Brief Edition, 2014-2015

48 PART ONE • THE AMERICAN SYSTEM

geographic spread, contributed to the isolation of

many regions within the states. It could take several

weeks for all of the states to be informed about a

particular political decision.

Other Arguments

for Federalism

Even with modern transportation and communica­

tions systems, the large area or population of some

nations makes it impractical to locate all political

authority in one place. Federalism brings government

closer to the people. It allows more direct access to,

and influence on, government agencies and policies,

rather than leaving the population restive and dis­

satisfied with a remote, faceless, all­powerful central

authority.

Benefits for the United States. In the United

States, federalism historically has yielded many ben­

efits. State governments have long been a training

ground for future national leaders. Many presidents

made their political mark as state governors. The

states themselves have been testing grounds for new

government initiatives. As United States Supreme

Court justice Louis Brandeis once observed:

It is one of the happy incidents of the federal sys-

tem that a single courageous state may, if its citizens

choose, serve as a laboratory and try novel social

and economic experiments without risk to the rest

of the country.^2

Examples of programs pioneered at the state level include unemployment com­

pensation, which began in Wisconsin, and air­pollution control, which was initiated in

California. Today, states are experimenting with policies ranging from educational reforms

to homeland security strategies. Since the passage of the 1996 welfare reform legisla­

tion—which gave more control over welfare programs to state governments—states have

also experimented with different methods of delivering welfare assistance.

Allowance for Many Political Subcultures. The American way of life always has been

characterized by a number of political subcultures, which divide along the lines of race and

ethnic origin, region, wealth, education, and, more recently, degree of religious commit­

ment and sexual preference. The existence of diverse political subcultures would appear

to be incompatible with a political authority concentrated solely in a central government.

Had the United States developed into a unitary system, various political subcultures cer­

tainly would have been less able to influence government behavior than they have been,

and continue to be, in our federal system.

A jackhammer operator from New York’s Department

of Environmental Protection removes asphalt from a street to fix

a water pipe damaged during Hurricane Sandy. In January 2013,

Congress voted a $51 billion Hurricane Sandy aid package to

be distributed to affected states. Why is disaster relief funding a

national responsibility? (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

2. New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262 (1932).

www
Helpful Web Sites
This book contains
footnotes for court cases,
such as New State Ice Co.
v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262
(1932). The mysterious
“285 U.S. 262” gives the
location of this case in
an official publication.
Usually, however, you can
enter just the name of the
case in a search engine to
find the ruling and articles
that describe it.

Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.