Pros And Cons Of Cooperative Federalism

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Despite American government being characteristically dominated by cooperative feudalism, there is a persistence of national supremacy elements, state’s rights, and dual fideism. The current situation can, therefore, be regarded as balanced federalism. A cooperative relationship between state government and the national government is specifically rooted in a transfer of payments done from the national government to government in lower levels, which is referred to as fiscal feudalism (Bednar, 2009). There are mainly two types of grants which are block grants and categorical grants. This is a federal aid which is spent by states within a given policy area, although with much state discretion. General revenue sharing (GRS) was used back in the 1970s and 1980s. GRS awarded the state maximum control over policies, but gaining political support was difficult for them. The new federalism started with Richard Nixon's term of presidency. The new federalism tried to move power to the state by bringing together categorical grants to form block grants and give states the power over programs which include welfare among others (Chhibber & Kollman, 2009). The practice gained support from president Regan, he believed that local politicians and states were in close contact with the people and they would know their needs better and how to spend on them. Under the rule of President Clinton, unfunded …show more content…

States will also compete in attracting residents as people will shift to the state that favors them mostly. As discussed in our textbook, “Scholars continue to debate the effects of the evolution of federalism on civil society: Some argue that a strong national government does not result in weakening of community associations, while others believe that it does” (Cropf,

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