Federalism and Safety on America's Highways

Safety on America's highways has long been an important statepolicy issue, but since the 1960s Congress has used incentivegrants, crossover sanctions that threaten to withhold federalhighway funds, and diversionary sanctions that force statesto use highway funds for safety purposes as a means of compellingstates to adopt traffic safety policies. In an effort to promotepublic health, Congress has, at times, pushed states to adoptlower speed limits, mandatory motorcycle helmet laws, occupantprotection laws, and laws designed to deter impaired driving.This article examines which fiscal tools have been effectivein getting states to adopt traffic safety policies, how stateshave responded to changes in federal priorities on public healthgoals, and the implications of these policy efforts for publichealth.     

Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management: Environmental Policy, Federalism, and New York

This article examines state efforts to implement the Low-LevelRadioactive Waste Policy Act of 1960 and its 1985 amendments,and the significance of New York v. United States et al. forlow-level waste (LLW) facility siting. Interstate compactingunder the act has been successful for compact regions encompassingpreviously operating disposal facilities, but elsewhere theprocess is in gridlock. The principal cause of siting failuresis the NIMBY phenomenon, which obstructed new facility identificationand siting. Little reason is found for optimism in surmountingNIMBY opposition. The New York decision, which voided a take-titleprovision from the LLW Policy Act while retaining other statesiting incentives, could negatively affect LLW policy implementationby weakening the critical set of policy hammers. The prognosisis more positive for federalism. Although the Court eschewedan opportunity to revisit Garcia in its narrowly tailored decision,it did revive its role as federal umpire in a case involvingthe constitutional division of authority between the federalgovernment and the states.     

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.     

Congress and Reagan's New Federalism

This article analyzes the congressional response to the Reaganadministration's New Federalism proposals in terms of party,region, and constituency during Reagan's first term. While theCongress approved various spending cuts in grants to local andstate governments and in means-tested benefit programs to thepoor, even in 1981 when New Federalism initiatives enjoyed themost success, Congress terminated only one program, CETA publicservice jobs. A stalemate developed in 1982. The Reagan administrationand the congressional Republicans could not impose further majorspending cuts or program terminations, and the congressionalDemocrats could not restore the 1981 cuts or add new aid programs.Although the stalemate continued on New Federalism's dismantlingof aid programs as a grand scheme even into 1985, after PresidentReagan's reelection, Congress continued to approve incrementalcuts in overall spending, and the $200 billion budget deficitremained as a lever to force even greater cuts and program terminationsin the years ahead.     

New Federalism and Environmental Policy

This article examines the degree of correspondence between theconceptual underpinnings of President Reagan's New Federalismand the willingness and capacity of states to assume a largershare of environmental responsibilities. The findings indicatethat many of the states have not replaced federal aid reductionswith own-source revenues. Replacements that did occur were limitedto a single year and primarily in the area of hazardous wastemanagement grants. The implications of these findings are that"decentralization and defunding" of federal programs in theenvironmental area may have had an adverse effect on the states'ability to provide solutions to pressing environmental problemsin the first half of the 1980s.     

New Federalism and Midwestern Cities: 1981-1985

President Ronald Reagan introduced a major new domestic initiativeduring his first term. The intent was to reduce the size andscope of the federal government and to increase the fiscal responsibilityof local governments. Mail questionnaires were sent to mayors,city managers, and finance officers in cities over 25,000 populationin Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin asking the respondentsto indicate their perception of the impact the Reagan programhad had on their cities in the previous year and their perceptionof its anticipated impact. Response rates were nearly 50 percentfor each survey. The respondents consistently overestimatedthe impact the Reagan program would have on their cities. Thefollowing analysis explores the relationship between perceivedeffects and city and respondent characteristics, such as size,partisan identification, and state. While the Reagan policieshave had a substantial impact on these cities, the impact isnot as negative as the respondents originally thought.     

Federalism in Nigeria's New Democratic Polity

In the aftermath of military rule, Nigeria's new civilian, democraticfederal system is highly centralized while also being fragmentedsubnationally. There is much pressure to reconstitute the federalsystem, devolve powers, provide for a more equitable distributionof natural-resource revenues and other revenues, and use statesto advance ethno-religious identities. Although federalism islikely to survive in Nigeria, political leaders need to developa culture of intergovernmental consultation and cooperationin order to solve the federation's problems more peacefullyand expeditiously.     

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.     

Assisted Housing and Reagan's New Federalism: The Colorado Experience

This article considers assisted housing policies during theReagan administration relative to four dimensions of what DeilS. Wright has called a "restoration" strategy: decongestion,devolution, decrementalism, and deregulation. General evidencesuggests that decrementalism has been the major thrust in assistedhousing policy, and evidence from Colorado seems to underscorethat general evidence. Questionnaire and interview data fromColorado housing authority directors do not indicate perceptionsof increased decongestion, devolution, and deregulation duringthe Reagan years. Decrementalism, the only dimension that housingauthority directors perceive to have come about, is not perceivedto have lessened regulation or to have brought about greaterlocal decisionmaking responsibility.     

Environmental Federalism at Decade's End: New Approaches and Strategies

This article examines several recent trends in environmentalpolicy that may have important effects over the next decadeon federal-state relations and on the nation's environmentalquality. It focuses on the Environmental Protection Agency'sefforts to "reinvent" environmental regulation and to encouragecommunity-based environmental protection as a more effectiveand acceptable approach to environmental policy. We considerthe extent to which these new directions are likely to improverelations between the federal government and states, localities,and the private sector, and to achieve desired levels of environmentalprotection in the United States. The new approaches are highlypromising; yet they also face significant barriers to implementation.Congressional reform of the key statutes could lend much-neededsupport to such efforts.     

The Job Training Partnership Act: New Federalism in Transition

The Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 (JTPA) constitutedthe most recent, successful attempt by the Reagan administrationto devolve increased domestic program authority to the statesusing the block grant approach. Because of its heavy relianceon the participation of state governments and the private sector,JTPA may prove to be the real "acid test" of the Reagan NewFederalism. This article examines the implementation of JTPAin broad perspective. While preparations for the JTPA programbegan in most states during the early part of 1983, the programdid not really begin its first official program year until 1July 1984. After describing the major features of the act, thearticle focuses on the program's implementation. The analysisis based largely on the results of a nationwide study conductedunder the direction of the authors during 1984. The articleconcludes that, in terms of its legislative provisions and effectiveimplementation, JTPA has proved to be a "quasi-block grant"to the states.     

Environmental Policy, New Federalism and New Privatism: Policy Conflicts in the Coastal Zone

Public policies developed under the New Federalism of the 1970s and the new privatism of the 1980s have produced a variety of policy problems for states. This is particularly true in the area of environmental policy. This paper looks at environmental policymaking in the coastal zone giving particular attention to the conflicts between the desire to protect renewable resources and the need for economic growth in the coastal zone. These conflicts are illustrated by an examination of comprehensive land use planning in Oregon and the federal government's proposal to develop seabed mining on the Gorda Ridge.     

Federal Preemption Under Reagan's New Federalism

Ronald Reagan defined his federalism program in terms of returningpolitical power to state and local governments. In practice,he was Janus-faced with respect to his views on domestic policyissues. His "public" face emphasized initiatives promoting areturn of political power to the states and local governments.His "silent" face encouraged additional centralization of politicalpower in several functional areas, and he signed bills prohibitingstate economic regulation of certain industries. Most of Reagan'sinitiatives were administrative, and increased to a limitedextent the discretionary authority of states. In general, thepresident favored a smaller federal regulatory role but notnecessarily a larger state and local government role. He signedtotal preemption bills granting greater freedom of action tothe banking, communications, and transportation industries,and tax sanction and crossover sanction bills. At the closeof his administration, intergovernmental relations were morecoercive than they had been in 1980.     

Forty Years of German Federalism: Past Trends and New Developments

This article traces the major developments in German federalismfrom 1949 to the present. From a system based on a concept of"dual federalism," which was different in important ways fromthe American system, German federalism became somewhat morelike the postwar American cooperative federalism. Criticismof this system in the 1970s led to various reform efforts, whichmade little headway until the 1980s and the formation of a CDU/CSU-FDPcoalition government under Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The "turnabout"promised by this government and carried out to some extent includedplans and policies to strengthen the Länder by some sortingout of functions. These efforts were successful at first, butthe federal government has oriented its policies more towardthe national arena. Financial constraints, the nationalizationof basic rights, technological concerns, and pressures by theEC have led to new tendencies toward intergovernmentalizingand centralizing the relations between the federation and Landgovernments.     

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 New Federalism Game: Primacy Implementation of Environmental Policy

Federal environmental laws have substantially preempted statepowers over pollution control. Many of these laws contain aunique implementation scheme called "primacy," which offersa state the opportunity to become the primary enforcement agentfor federal policies. Primacy relieves the federal governmentfrom enforcing laws within state boundaries even while it retainsultimate control over the policies involved and sets minimumstandards. By and large, states have chosen to accept primacy.Characteristics of the units involved in the implementationprocess explain much of this success. Deviations from the expectedpatterns reveal how states can manipulate primacy to their ownadvantage. It is possible, however, that game playing by thestates under primacy could undermine the ultimate goals of nationalenvironmental policies.     

Economic Considerations and Reagan's New Federalism Swap Proposals

Upon coming to office, President Ronald Reagan proposed a numberof programs collectively referred to as the New Federalism.These programs were designed to alleviate some of the problemswhich the president saw as plaguing the intergovernmental systemand to accomplish Reagan's goal of decentralizing authority.One of the most highly publicized and debated— indeed,probably the most controversial—aspect of the President'sNew Federalism package was the "Big Swap" plan. Both versionsof this plan, however, were bad deals for the states and theircommunities, and it would appear that several interrelated economicconcerns played a role in the opposition of many state and localofficials to these proposals. To demonstrate just how bad theseproposals were, the article documents the effect that inflationand recession had had on the fiscal health of state and localgovernments, and the projected impact that these plans wouldhave had on state and local revenue and tax systems.