Lecture 1 POLS 207 Outline of Current Lecture Centralization of American Government I Government Centralization at the national level A Loss of state and local powers B Congressional action II Sources of reasons for this centralization A Federal government has more money than state local B Nationalist interpretation of US Constitution Current Lecture Centralization of American government and reduction of state and local power Overarching theme of class I Government Centralization at the national level Centralization reduction in power of states and localities to design enact and administer public programs on their own through increasing rules and mandates from the national government especially from the Congress and federal courts Governments at all levels tend to EXPAND CENTRALIZE CONSOLIDATE POWER When this happens any subordinate government suffers a loss of its power A Loss of state and local powers There is a power struggle between the national government and the state governments and on a smaller scale the same struggle goes on between state and local governments This struggle can be viewed as a tug of war battle between the respective authorities When one gains power the other must lose it B Congressional Action 14th Amendment had a HUGE impact on state and local government because it forced every state and city within the US to follow a mandate from the Federal government The national government was flexing its muscles Some more recent decisions that drastically infringed upon state and local power Obamacare and No Child Left Behind Congress goal is not necessarily to reduce state and local power but that ends up being the byproduct of their actions II Sources of modern since the 1930 s centralization A Some fiscal and policy capacity issues for states and localities meaning that power tends to follow the money so state and local governments are at a disadvantage when competing with the national government because they have so much less at their disposal In the 1920s state local governments had 67 of the power while national government had 33 Today the balance is more like 40 60 with the national government holding the lion s share of power Side note Conservatives are traditionally nervous about wars because they centralization Centralization slowed down after WWll then again after mid eighties B Triumph of nationalist interpretation of the U S Constitution Very important Since the 1780s the Constitution has been understood using one of two different frames of reference nationalist OR state based states rights Side note The phrase states rights carries implications of racism for those old enough to remember Jim Crow segregation State based is a more academic politically correct term Nationalist Did we the people an organic whole create the Constitution or statebased was it the states compact that created it Which level of government is the most essential to American liberty and selfgovernment National or State Is it more effective to work together as a national team or to protect local interests from the possible and probable tyranny of the Fed In general since the thirties the SCOTUS Supreme Court of the United States has embraced the Nationalist view They have an expansive view of Congress Article 1 8 powers Congress shall have the power to Article 1 section 8 phrase Congress shall have the power to is stressed a lot Interstate commerce SCOTUS pursuing a two track strategy Since 1995 there have been over a dozen major decisions limiting national government especially congressional power over states and localities