It is a fact that state and local governments affect our lives on a daily basis. They provide services which we consider basic such as snow and garbage removal. They as well set the standards for early and secondary education. It will not go unmentioned that they further determine the amount of money we pay in property taxes. Nevertheless, not all states can be graded equal in the quantity of resources at their disposal. Socio-demographics, geography, economic indicators, political culture and political history all have a proper influence on how the states collect their revenue thus affecting the policy outcomes.
For instance, the citizens’ belief about the right role of government or the political culture has a direct effect on the organizational structure of the state and localities. Such beliefs more often than not do vary within and between states, though. To sequentially elaborate such variance between states and localities, chapter one introduces the comparative method. Citizens have built trust in the state and the local governments rather than the federal government. They do so with the hope that the state and the local governments will design and execute public policy programs. Due to this the federal government has been granting states more power to act on their own through the process of devolution.
This has resulted to states having more authority over the level of policy innovation and experimentation within the American political system. Some citizens have even gone to the extent of referring to the states as “laboratories of democracy” however, other factors including the degree of organized interest group activity and the composition and the rules of the legislature; affect the real degree of policy innovation within a state. The need for a methodological tool capable of systematic examination of the differences between and among similar units is paramount in order to appropriately study the variations. Once more the comparative method proves to be a useful tool in the analysis and explanation of such differences.
An example is the Florida state and the local government has numerous departments in the executive branch such as the department of transportation, state, revenue, elder affairs education, children and families, citrus correction and many more. These departments can easily solve disputes and listen to the citizens’ grievances in a more urgent manner compared to the federal government.
Chapter two of the book talks about the federalism. The federal governments and state governments relate in a complex manner. The United States did adopt a federal government system in the early political history. This was to ensure a balanced political power between the federal government and the state. Power is shared among the states and the sharing is independent of one another. They are therefore considered equals. In respect to this, states have vast policymaking roles in the United States political system, giving room for more representative and more responsive public policy. Moreover, federalism will not fail to have its disadvantages, in particular the confusion and the complexity that arise from fifty different sets of policy recommendations.
The nature of the interrelationship between the federal government and the state has experienced many changes due to the quest to address the shortcomings of federalism. Despite the fact that federalism provides the local government with a chance to experiment with public policy, there has been disputes over the extent of policymaking authority the states should have. The disputes have so far resulted into the emergence of different eras of federalism. Those that emerged in the 1930s did see to it an accommodative core relationship between the federal government and the states. Those that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in the states relying so much on the federal government on financial matters. The problem is worsened by the unite states of America’s constitution when it fails to outline the powers of the state governments explicitly. Stats are currently less dependent on the federal governments financially, and have much policy free will and autonomy. The argument progresses over what policy responsibilities lay with each government level.
In chapter three the author discusses the operating instructions. The state constitution allow for implausibly detailed and unique blue prints or operating state governments. However, it is the American constitution and not the individual state constitutions that the electorate is most conversant with. A state constitution is according to the book is a political document that furnishes one with an institutionalized bequest of a states’ political culture. Therefore it is quite significant to understand the structure of a state’s government and the process of making policies within that state.
The government and the citizens of a particular state may want to alter the framework for government set forth in their state constitution as feelings of what make good government change inside that state. There is a provision for each state for formal as well as informal methods for proposing alterations to its constitution. The changes can have an effect on the power distribution within government and the function of citizens of citizens in the policymaking process and also the basic rights of the citizens.
The opportunity of determining the rights of citizens and that of changing the basic structure of government is readily available particularly for states with the method of direct democracy. As the current trends indicate, such means are widely used.Local governments and states have become responsible for the distribution of political power and administration of elections due to the influence of political parties, the decline of power and rise of candidate-centered politics.
The natures of the candidates being centered on political campaigns have repositioned the duty of state parties to one that is more facilitative and consultative than in the past. The level of interparty competition within states has remained high despite a fall in the party machines across states, as witnessed by the 2002 and the 2006 state legislative elections. State governments stay highly influential in the process of nomination.
The interest groups in the legislative process prominence have intensified the tendency towards professionalized campaigns. In the last fifty years, interest group activity has increased noticeably. Though the American citizens tend to mistrust them, interest groups occupy important financial roles, mobilization and financial roles in the political process.
In the current trends for instance, the relationship of local governments and sate with the national government is not just centering on Washington D.C impinging on small town America. Irrespective of the act that the federal governments have installed the minimum needs and standards in areas such as pollution control and the civil rights, local government and active state have broadened the extent of the roles and the quantities of the budgets.
Many local governments and sates installed voucher systems that saw to it that patents sent their children to school using a state –issued voucher, others showed renewed energy, some have organized charter schools yet others have set limits on how long the elected officials can serve in office. The states still have developed diverse forms of job training for welfare recipients. They have also established limits on property taxes. Some yearn to fulfill an expectation the expectation that they are “laboratories of justice.” the states and the local governments are Small enough to experiment with new innovative practices and closer to the people than the federal governments.
States and the local governments have extended the size of their bureaucracies and the regulatory powers over citizens in addition to expanding their budget. Based on the tenth amendments, recent Supreme Court verdicts have fixed the federal government’s authority. (The tenth amendments reserves power not delegated to the federal governments for the states.) For instance, the federal government is not in a position to ask the local law enforcement agencies to carry out minor administrative jobs, such as checking on gun purchase. Such limitation results into tendencies in increases independence of state and local governments.
Federalism, in the late twentieth century resembled a marbled cake. The state and the local governments as well as the national government share functions and financing. It is therefore quite uneasy to determine the role of individual units. This did not concur with the traditional arrangement of the past, where the local governments and the federal, and state functioned as a layer cake. The federal government on the top; followed by the state in the middle and lastly the local governments at the bottom.
Work cited
Retrieved 12thDecember, 2012.
