Federalism is the political system in which the powers and policy assignments are shared between the central government and numerous regional governments. In this system, the local units of government and a national government make final decisions with respect to at least some governmental activities whose existence is federal protected. In other words, it is a political system where the government is composed of the regional government and the national government. The local units of government can be the provinces, states, territories or any other sub-unit within the political system. This system of government is widely practiced not only in first world countries such as USA and Canada but also in developing countries like India and Brazil.
The wide practice and adoption of federalism are attributed to by its numerous benefits. First, it provides diversity and independence. Local government can deal directly with local problems. The Full Faith and Credit clause in federalism legal administration provides that the various states must recognize the legislative acts, public records and judicial decisions of other states with the USA. Legislative acts and judicial decisions are not imposed on the locals, but instead, they are accorded concession to participate and implement in these decisions. State governments may be better suited to deal with specific state and local problems; they have the freedom to adopt policies which may not be followed nationally or by any other states provided it affects a wholesome of the state's constituents.
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Federalism helps manage problems and conflicts. Privileges and immunities clause also known as the comity clause provides security and entitles all the citizens to privileges and immunities that provide safety by eliminating possible inter-state aggressions. Also permitting states and communities to peruse their federal policies reduces the pressure that would build up if the national government would decide on everything. The architecture of Full Faith and Credit clause and Comity clause also substantially contributes to this benefit. Moreover, a state can extradite or return a criminal to any other state, an act that provides safety and security to citizens in the entire country.
Federalism also increases political participation, or it is an antidote for the concentration of power. It allows all people at the local and national level to run for and hold any political office. The local leaders are often considered closer to the people than the national government leaders. State government representatives live in proximity to the people and are most of the times from the same community or region, and they are therefore in a better position to understand these problems and offer unique solutions to them. The ultimate aim of federalism is to upsurge the local participation in the governance. The widespread distribution of power is generally regarded as a protection against tyranny. To the extent that pluralism thrives in most nations in the world, the respective state and local governments are its esteemed cause for this success. State and local government also contribute to the existence of opposition power to the government, a check that keeps the government on toes.
Federalism also offers conclusive representation to different populations. Citizens of different states may have different aspirations, ethnicity, and their distinctive cultures. The central government can sometimes overlook and demean these differences and adopt policies which generalize to the majority. The federal government will be analytic at this point while the state governments give formulating policies, local needs, rights, and opinions due consideration.
In federal systems, efficiency and performance improvements, the states can enter into an agreement with other states with the inclusion of national government as disclosed by interstate compact. The national government approves and applauds an agreement only if its intentions are clear and beneficial. Two local governments can have two different approaches to bring reforms in any area of public domain. The comparison of the results of these policies can give a clear idea of which policy to adopt. This ensures efficiency and effectiveness in states engagements by reducing bureaucracy, delays, and confusions that would arise if the national government was managing everything, from street lighting to garbage collection. Division of work between the central and the local governments can lead to optimum utilization of resources. The central government can concentrate more on international affairs and defense of the country while the local government can cater to the local needs of the citizens.
Federalism fosters state loyalties. Each state operates independently federal laws made under the constitution and treaties made under its authority constitute the supreme law of the land, supremacy clause. In addition, federalism bolsters democracy. It is the solution to the problem of a democratic difference since it forces the politicians from different sides of the aisle to do their responsibilities jointly or independently with a common goal. State government can experiment with policies with other states as the national government awaits implementation after its success.
Lastly, federalism leads to collective responsibility and bargaining. The different state operates as a wholesome authority and government. They, therefore, the source for their respective investors and economic aids to aid their counties, the huge number of elective politicians pool their management skills and work for a common achievement. This is accountable for the broad skills and innovations implemented by the governments at different levels. Policies can also be borrowed from other states and implemented in different ones. In addition, different economic sectors are allocated to skilled personnel who are able to propel them to the prosperity of the government.
In as much as federalism is beneficial in practice, it is also defective to the society to an extent. The importance of formal constitutional arrangement should not be underestimated. Federalism obstructs actions on national issues, occasionally, decentralization of critical and adverse national issues such as civil rights often allow segregation to flourish. A minority can expect better treatment by national agencies than by the state authorities and vice versa. Such menaces can result to unevenly economic development and eventually national disintegration.
Federalism often allows the benefits and cost of the government to be spread unevenly. In other words, federalism promotes regional inequality. Natural resources, industries, employment opportunities vary from one region to the other hence earning and wealth are unevenly distributed. Rich states offer more opportunities and benefits to its citizens that are poor. Some states spend as much as twice the amount another state spends on education. This causes uneven cost as well as unbalanced sector development. Every state has political, social and economic problems peculiar to the region itself. Sometimes there can be overlapping of work and subsequent confusion on responsibility. The government officials who do not understand the system might neglect their responsibility to others and/or entrench into unassigned duties and responsibilities. This can lead to huge loss especially during emergencies that require an immediate response such as fire outbreak.
The federal system of government is very expensive. Very many people are elected to the office both at the national level and at the regional levels which increases recurrent expenditure. Too many elected representations can lead to overlapping and duplicated roles, this can lead to corruption and mismanagement of funds. Duplicated duties with raising the wage bill without no direct output out of the wage. This occasionally can transpire to economic problems such as high taxation which in response results to inflation in the country. In addition, it can also lead to the creation of uncalled for roles that make administration a problem adversely. Due to this, federalism has always been pronounced a kind of government that requires rich countries.
Federalism can also lead to unnecessary completion between different regions. As a result, the poorer states and communities will be disadvantaged which generally will provide lower levels of education, health, and environmental protection and welfare services than wealthier states and communities. In addition, there can be a rebellion by the regional government to the national government for instance when national government misuse extradition authority to arrest a regional leader falsely. Both scenarios pose a threat to the country's integrity.
Federal government can make national government selfish and biased. They might formulate policies that might be detrimental to other states in an attempt to protect their privileges. According to G. Reeves, these segregationists use the argument of states' right to avoid federal laws designed to guarantee equality and prevent discrimination. Indeed, the states' rights argument has been used so often in defense of racial discrimination.
Lastly, federalism can also be misused by egoistic people and individuals to perpetuate corruption, nepotism, and tribalism. These political regions are geographically located hence comprises of related communities 8 . Poor management of these political domains can result in tribalism; the workforce of the states can be a composition of the community or region. This will not reflect the adversity of the country and as a result, compromising the unity and national integration. On the other hand, the adversity and huge leadership composition can result in corruption. Some individuals will keep pushing their personal and egoistic agenda that only benefits them. This will derail the development of the nation as well as the political regions.
Thus, it is understandable that we have advantages and disadvantages of federalism. There is a general feeling that central government propels the rights of the minority and neglects the right of the minority. However, the central government is also a composition of the local and is expected to take into consideration the rights of all citizens. Due to the nature of the Congress and the extent or size of the Congress, not all citizens will be represented. Therefore, from our discussion above and much more because of the increase in political representation at all levels and the acknowledgment of Full Faith and Credit clause, the representation is expected to upsurge with federalism. However, this also causes another challenge of a big number of political staff hence huge recurrent expenditure. The belief that only developed countries can afford federalism is untrue. The adoption of is kind of government only requires proper channel, constitution, and other legal measures in order to distinguish the responsibilities and minimize the possible generated shortcomings.
In conclusion, federalism is a bi-responsive political mechanism, and often its shortcomings tend to upsurge and scale up if the system is not properly defined. Definition of the system requires setting up the proper constitution and legal systems to adapt and confine the administrative tools within the manageable scale. The extremity in the response of this system is a dictator to the suggestive purported analogy for practice. In other words, different countries have different views and results for application of the system. For some countries, the system is outstanding while for others it is faulty. This is because of their respective capacities to confine its outcomes and operations. For federalism to be truly successful, it should be accompanied by other ideas like secularism, democracy, and liberalism.
Bibliography
Brian Snyder and Reuters. “ Federalism is Dead, Long Live Federalism .” The Atlantic Publishers . 2017
J and G Reeves. “ Federalism and Practicability .” Washington, DC: Political Science of the Millennium. 2007
