![The Divided States of America - Why Federalism Doesn't Work The Divided States of America - Why Federalism Doesn't Work](https://www.proleacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/The-Divided-States-of-America-Donald-Kettl.jpg)
This book strives to understand why state and federal governments can’t get along. To do that, it takes us back to the beginning of the United States of America. It centers around America’s use of federalism. By federalism, we mean dividing power between the federal and state governments. The author, Donald Kettl, argues this is no longer a useful form of government for us. Why does it it exist now? In the 1780s, federalist ideas helped form a compromise to keep the early American republic together. Even then, the flaws built into the system in its beginnings have come to bite us now. You could say the same about our winner-take-all system of politics. The demands of wealthy landowners, merchants and slave-owners mattered most in the 1780s. Despite all our progress since then, that legacy stays with us. The legacy of federalism is inefficient and inconsistent results across fifty separate governments. Kettl, a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas, Austin, argues these unequal outcomes aren’t fair to Americans. More than that, this system isn’t sustainable, and its cracks are showing more now than since the Civil War. His alternatives need fleshing out, but the problem Kettl cites is real.
The book is a pretty flavorless bit of political science. It’s not difficult to read, but it doesn’t exactly compel you to stick with it (the way How Democracies Die will). Kettl does conveys the seriousness of the problem he discusses. Still, if you’re looking for something both informative and riveting, this may not be it.
Federalism once made more sense in our politics. It wasn’t just useful to foment a compromise between large and small states, or slave and free. The Founding fathers implemented it back when the state you lived in was often the only one that could impact your daily life. Most people, even in a society of immigrants and settlers, didn’t stray too far from the place of their birth. Life was largely based around farms for most people. The country was agrarian, not industrial. Now, we’re an industrial society with transcontinental trade, transport and media networks. Because of this as much as anything, the writing is on the wall for federalism. Protecting your state’s rights from an abusive central government has its virtue. Yet states also used their autonomy to discriminate and oppress racial and religious minorities.
Now, we have thousands of federally funded programs that states administer very differently. They’re designed to tie us together, help us progress, and smooth the rough edges of our capitalist economic system. They’re meant to ensure no one goes hungry, homeless or sick. Federalist principles that focus on things like block-grants (read: we give states the money and they can administer the program however the hell they want) are about freedom. At least, they are according to their proponents. Kettl argues that instead, they create unequal outcomes among states. Some of these states administer those programs efficiently, and others clearly don’t. Sometimes they even seem to be sabotaging the programs themselves. This may even violate the 14th Amendment‘s equal protection provisions.
What isn’t especially convincing is Kettl’s prescription for the disease. He suggests vague moves toward a more centralized system of government. Still, I don’t clearly see what path you could take to create one. I once thought COVID-19 could convince us of the need to have more centralized organization of things like health policy and unemployment insurance. More than two years into the pandemic, that no longer seems to be likely.
Donald Kettl has given us a great explanation of the disease – where it comes from, how it operates, how it ravages us. The cure remains elusive.
The Divided States of America - Why Federalism Doesn't Work
Federalism may not be a genius invention - more of a compromise necessary in the 1780s that's now far more trouble than it's worth. Professor Donald Kettl explains his view in a book that is ...
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