Australia's New Federalism: Recipes for Marble Cakes

In July of 1990, the prime minister of Australia announced aprogram to achieve a closer partnership between the three levelsof government. His concern was the degree of bureaucratic overlapin the Australian federation and the hindrances to mobility,portability, and uniformity which made the Australian economymore balkanized than Europe post-1992. The announcement capitalizedon dissatisfaction with Australian federalism that had beengrowing in the 1970s and 1980s, and its timing coincided witha range of catalysts making the current climate favorable forchange. The new federalism unleashed a process of review andreform across some forty program or subprogram areas over aneighteen-month period with a prime objective to attain roleclarification for the three levels of government in shared functionalareas, somewhat akin to the German horizontal model of federalrole allocation. The process survived a political challengethat toppled the prime minister, aspects of the new federalismforming a key element of that challenge. Constitutional changeis also part of the agenda and already the Australian experienceholds a number of lessons for other federal systems.     

Surface-Transportation Funding in a New Century: Assessing One Slice of the Federal Marble Cake

This article examines American federalism through the prismof the surface transportation program, one of the nation's largestgrant-in-aid programs. No matter how pragmatic or intense thedesire to express assessments in simple terms, federalism isa time-sensitive reflection of our collective experiential understanding.Facts, values, hypotheses, and concepts are derived from thiscollective understanding. The experience of the surface transportationprogram under ISTEA and TEA–21 illustrates the challengeof achieving a clear picture of federalism when radical changesoccur. ISTEA and TEA–21 have significantly altered traditionalintergovernmental relationships, particularly as the federalrole in transportation appears to have become more ambiguousthan at any time in the past 45 years. Thus, at the outset ofthe twenty-first century, the federal role in transportationis shifting, becoming far less focused. Other goals are emerging,leading the federal transportation role to become more of ameans to an end than the central focal point.     

Devolutionary Federalism and Elazar's Typology: The Arkansas Response to Reagan's New Federalism

This article examines the relationship between the federal andstate governments with regard to the Reagan administration'sNew Federalism. The underlying concern centers on the financialrelationship among governments portrayed by Elazar's typologyof federal aid. The focus of this investigation is directedtoward the adjustments being made by the states to accommodatethe financial and administrative changes occurring on the nationallevel, as illustrated by the case of Arkansas. The analysiscenters on two questions: 1) Has the New Federalism initiativeachieved Reagan's goals of decentralizing governmental authorityback to the states? 2) Has a major redirection in the federalsystem been achieved by reducing the federal financial obligationin the intergovernmental system? The changes being made in thefederal system, as reflected by the adjustments occurring amongthe states, may signal an important realignment of federalism.     

Pragmatic Federalism: Australian Federalism from Hawke to Howard

The article explores the nature of Australian federalism by examining four major themes in the period from Hawke to Howard. The investigation of these themes – Australian conceptions of federalism; the role of party in shaping federalism; the way problems and politics have influenced policy‐making and thereby federalism; and the nature of federal judicial review – suggests that Australian federalism can most accurately be characterised as pragmatic. It appears as a federalism shaped by pressing problems, specific policy agendas and the prevailing political dynamic, rather than by overarching conceptions of federalism derived from political theory or articulated in party ideology. This pragmatic federalism explains important aspects of Australian federalism, especially the trend towards centralisation of authority.     

The Debate on Australian Federalism: Local Government Financial Interrelationships with State and Commonwealth Governments

The nascent debate on Australian federalism has hitherto focused almost entirely on Commonwealth-state interrelationships to the virtual exclusion of local government. Since Australian local government employs around 156,000 people and spends in excess of $10 billion this neglect is unfortunate. In an effort to at least partly remedy this oversight, the present paper seeks to assess various unsettled questions in local government financial relationships with both Commonwealth and state governments, especially the issue of financial assistance grants and their efficiency consequences.     

The Status of the Budget Constraint,Federalism and the Relative Size of Government: A Bureaucracy Approach

We develop a model along the lines of Niskanen,articulating that under a soft government budgetconstraint the full production cost of the public goodis not reflected in the tax price as perceived by theconsumer-taxpayer-voter. Various proportions ofnon-tax financing and different degrees of votermyopia with respect to discounting the future taxliabilities are taken into account. It can be shownthat both the actual level of public output and theamount of slack resources are lower under a hardbudget constraint than under a soft budget regime.Lower levels of government typically operate under ahard budget constraint when compared with the federallevel since they have only limited (public) borrowingopportunities and no access to money creation(seignorage). In a federalist setting more governmentdecisions are taken under a hard budget constraintthan in a unitary state. Hence one would expect thatthe overall size of government is relatively smallerin a structure with fiscal federalism. An empiricaltest for 19 OECD-countries (1990–1992) seems tosupport this hypothesis.     

The State of American Federalism, 2005: Federalism Resurfaces in the Political Debate

After several years during which federalism was rarely a prominentor explicit issue in political debates, it was in several waysthrust into the public consciousness in 2005. It was not thatthe president or Congress ceased sacrificing state and localinterests to substantive policy goals, as shown by the costlyREAL ID Act, stringent new federal requirements in the TemporaryAid to Needy Families reauthorization, and congressional interventionin the Terri Schiavo case. However, Hurricane Katrina, and particularlythe delayed and ineffective intergovernmental response, generatedsubstantial debate about the appropriate federal role in disasterrelief. In addition, state and local governmental oppositionto the No Child Left Behind Act intensified and generated significantattention during the year, particularly as a result of a Utahstatute asserting the precedence of state over federal law anda Connecticut lawsuit against the act. Meanwhile, state governmentscontinued to address a number of policy problems that federalofficials were unable or unwilling to confront, especially regardingenvironmental, health-care, and labor issues. Finally, althoughthe Supreme Court in 2005 continued its recent (2003–2004)trend of pulling back somewhat from its late-1990s Congress-curbingdecisions, federalism issues figured quite prominently in thesenate confirmation hearings for Chief Justice John Robertsand Justice Samuel Alito.     

The Growth of Government: Sources and Limits

Theories of the size of government focus on either the demandfor government or the supply of tax revenues. Demand sidetheories such as those of Peltzman, Meltzer and Richard,Husted and Kenny, and Lott and Kenny are essentially politicaltheories. They emphasize the role of voters or interest groupsin expanding government. Supply side theories such as those ofKau and Rubin, Baumol, West, and Ferris and West emphasize theability of government to collect taxes. In this paper, wecombine both demand and supply side theories. For demand, weuse the Poole-Rosenthal time series data on the ideology ofCongress, on the theory that all political forces mustultimately express themselves in voting which is measured byideology. For supply, we use the Kau-Rubin measures of theability of government to collect taxes as a function of thedeadweight costs of tax collection and ability of individualsto hide revenues. We find that female labor forceparticipation and the associated ability to tax femaleproductivity is the most important factor associated withgovernment, and it alone explains about 60% of the actualgrowth of government. The ideology of the Senate is alsosignificant, but has a small effect. This paper may be thefirst to examine the influence of ideology on the time path ofa policy; other research examining ideology (including ours)has been cross sectional. Further research on the role ofideology in changing policies over time is clearly warranted.     

American Federalism: From Johnson to Bush

Intergovernmental developments for more than twenty-five yearshave produced a nation-centered federalism—strongly sofrom 1964 to 1978, somewhat less so from 1969–1988, anda little more so during the past two years. The reasons forthis fundamental systemic transformation include: (1) the demiseof the earlier, 150-year old, confederative party system andthe rise of a new political system with weak federative parties,but other more powerful political actors; (2) an operationaland local representational renaissance of the states, but alsoa concomitant decline of state and local political influencein Washington; (3) a steadily centralizing Supreme Court, withonly a few pro-state decisions until 1989; and (4) a rapid risein national preemptions and of a "new social regulation" thatwas aimed at state and local governments as much as at the privatesector, even as the states were used to implement them. Theonly real constraint on national activism since 1982 has beenbudget-driven federalism, not planned reform efforts. The currentsystem then requires political, representational, judicial,and constitutional reforms if the centralizing, cooptive, andpermissive features of contemporary federalism are to be corrected.     

Federalism and Decentralization: Ownership Rights and the Superiority of Federalism

The benefits and costs usually ascribed to federalism are benefitsand costs of decentralization; they are, therefore, presentin unitary states that are in fact all decentralized. The benefitsand costs specific to federalism pertain to ownership rightsin constitutional powers. Federalism is superior to confederalismand unitarianism because the ownership rights peculiar to thatsystem of government are such that they ensure the perduranceof competition when one or more competitors are unsuccessful.They do so because under federalism, powers cannot be repossessedunilaterally. Ownership rights have to be enforced; as a consequence,there are also costs that are specific to federalism.     

The Supreme Court and the Federal System: Federalism from Warren to Burger

The question of the relation of the states to the federal governmentis the cardinal question of our constitutional system. It cannotbe settled by the opinion of any one generation, because itis a question of growth, and each successive stage of our politicaland economic development gives it a new aspect, makes it a newquestion.¹     

The State of American Federalism, 2004: Is Federalism Still a Core Value?

Federalism as a political issue was conspicuously absent fromthe 2004 presidential contest. Unlike many previous campaigns,neither party's candidate made much mention of problems besettingstates and localities. The war against global terrorism andthe changing situation in Iraq shaped the election. Progresswas made on homeland security, but intergovernmental wranglingover federal grants continued unabated. Federal-state feudswere common in several policy areas, including education, environmentalprotection, and health care. State finances received a revenueboost as economic growth picked up, but rising costs for Medicaid,education, employee pensions, and prisons clouded states' financialforecasts. The U.S. Supreme Court decided several cases witha federalism dimension, and these decisions plus those of thepast several years suggest the Court has moved not so much togrant more power to the states but to prune back the power ofCongress. Much of what has happened during the first Bush administrationmust be seen against the larger background of changes in theAmerican political party system. Changes in party organizationand policy control, especially during the first Bush administration,reaffirm David Walker's assessment that over the past quartercentury American federalism has become more nationalized.     

Faces of Federalism: From Bullinger to Jefferson

This study argues that the eighteenth-century political philosophyof federalism found its roots in covenant theology of earlyReformed Protestantism in Zurich. It contends that there wasa progression covenant or federal thought from the first publishedarticulation of the theological covenant by Bullinger in 1534,through the use of the covenant notion in defense of tyrannicideby Philippe Mornay, to Johannes Althusius's political philosophyof federalism, as well as the political theories Thomas Hobbesand John Locke, to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutionof the United States. These different faces or variations offederalism shared several common elements over the 250-yearspan.     

Strengthening the Political Safeguards of Federalism: The Fate of Recent Federalism Legislation in the U.S. Congress

Although a number of measures have been proposed during thepast decade to require the U. S. Congress to take more accountof state and local interests, whether in regard to mandates,preemptions, regulations, or grants-in-aid, the only major successhas been passage of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995(UMRA). This article examines the fate of the dozen bills thatprogressed far enough to be the subject of a committee hearingor receive a vote in the House or Senate. Only a few of thesemeasures, most of them rather modest in scope, were enacted,while the most significant measures were rejected, largely becausestate and local governments have experienced a number of difficultiesin reproducing the conditions that were present for the passageof UMRA. Health, labor, and environmental groups were able toblock a number of these bills. Business groups occasionallyparted company with state and local governments and worked todefeat federalism legislation. Finally, state and local governmentgroups have not always been united in support of these measures.     

论护国运动中的联邦主义

在护国军政府中,无论是欧事研究会,还是进步党和西南地方实力派,都有联邦主义诉求,这使得护国运动具有强烈的联邦主义色彩。联邦主义的出现,既有其一定的思想基础,又有浓厚的工具主义色彩。随着护国运动的结束,联邦主义逐渐沉寂。20世纪20年代初,在中国空前分裂的特殊格局下,联邦主义又演变为声势浩大的联省自治思潮和运动。     

The Road to South Carolina: Intergovernmental Tax Immunity and the Constitutional Status of Federalism

In South Carolina v. Baker the Supreme Court struck a powerfulblow at constitutional federalism. As a result of this landmarkcase, the question of whether issuing tax exempt bonds is asovereign right of the states or a privilege they are accordedby the national government has been settled. Relying in parton precedent from Garcia, the Court determined that immunityis not a right under the Tenth Amendment. In addition, SouthCarolina established a new doctrine of intergovernmental taximmunity which formally accords superior powers to the nationalgovernment. Taken together, these results have implicationsfor the future course of intergovernmental fiscal policy aswell as the basic character of the relationship between thenational and state and local governments.     

Challenges to Federalism: Homeland Security and Disaster Response

This article examines the state of federalism in the Bush Administrationfrom the perspective of the policy area of homeland securityand disaster response. The article uses the International Cityand County Management Association homeland security survey completedin the spring and summer of 2005 as a source of data. The articleargues that while it is tempting to look for one single agencyto control homeland security and disaster response, a networkedmodel is better supported by the survey data and by recent experiencein terrorist and natural disaster response.     

From Competitive Regionalism to Cooperative Federalism: The Europeanization of the Spanish State of the Autonomies

Intergovernmental relations in Spain have undergone a significanttransformation during the past 22 years. With the transitionto democracy, Spain has developed from a unitary-centralistinto a quasi-federal polity in which the 17 autonomous communitiesenjoy significant political autonomy. However, Spain is notonly moving toward federal democracy, it is also approachinga cooperative model of federalism in which multilateral intergovernmentalcooperation and joint decision-making supersede the bilateralnegotiations and regional competition that traditionally characterizedintergovernmental relations. The shift from competitive regionalismto cooperative federalism is the result of the progressive Europeanizationof the Spanish state and its autonomous communities, which hasencouraged consultation and cooperation between the nationalgovernment and the regions. As traditional forms of intergovernmentalrelations proved ineffective for necessary coordination andcooperation, the Spanish government and the autonomous communitiesestablished a new procedure for cooperating in European affairs-thefirst institutional framework to provide for the joint participationof all 17 autonomous communities in central-state decision-making.     

From Constitutional to Treaty Federalism: A Comparative Perspective

Federalism in the European Union differs significantly fromthe American model. First, instead of relying on fixed constitutionalrights, the EU remains committed to a treaty-based process offlexible accommodation. Second, the federal system of constitutionalpower division has been replaced by the subsidiarity principle.The scope and dimension of Community action are tied to negotiatedcriteria of necessity and efficiency. Third, European federalismhas not adopted the American senate model. Member-state participationin the decision-making process is based on the German modelof weighted council representation. Regions and civic organizationshave gained an additional consultative voice. As a novel typeof federal polity, the EU may gain model character for a globalizingworld of nation-states whose interests appear loosely interconnectedby federal arrangements rather than firmly nested in a federalstate.