Federalism refers to a governance system that allows the sharing of power between the central government and other political units of the country. The U.S. is the major country that uses the federal system of government. The U.S. is a very big country. It operates under 50 regional governments of the states. There is a separation of power between these states. The federal government organizes the governance of the country. The U.S. is one of the oldest federal governments. It approved federalism on 17th September 1787.
The American federal system of governance has undergone several changes. The fact that the U.S still maintains this system shows that the system must have various benefits. Some of the benefits include ensuring that the government remains close to the citizens of the country. However, federalism has various costs. Conflicts between the state and national government in the running of the United States is one of the major costs of federalism.
Federalism leads to the formation of small political units that help in the governance of the citizens of the country. In the U.S., states and counties are the small political units that help in the governance of the country. These political units have their own political leader. The governor is the political leader who helps in the governance of a state.
The leader is usually from within the state. Democratic nations usually ensure that citizens elect the political leader of the political unit. This helps in reducing the dominance of the majority in governance of the country. Therefore, federalism helps in increasing the liberty of the citizens of the nation.
Federalism leads to the formation of small governance units. The small units perform duties that the central authority would have performed. Education, security, and healthcare are some of the major services that state governments perform. Formation of small governance units makes it easy to govern a country with a large geographical area or population.
If the U.S. did not use federalism, it would have been very difficult to manage the country effectively. In addition, the local governance units are closer to the citizens. Therefore, they understand the problems in their areas. This makes it easy for them to choose and implement policies that would help in tackling the problems effectively (Kollman 25).
Nations strive to improve the patriotism of their citizens. This helps in improving the governance of the country. Federalism helps in improving the patriotism of the citizens of a country. It is a fact that people usually feel close to their hometowns or states. Federalism uses this loyalty to improve the patriotism of the citizens of a country by giving more power to the states. This enables it to improve the patriotism of the citizens of a country.
Federalism fosters the democratic governance of a country. It enables the government of various states to experiment with various policies. The state government can experiment with the policies since the effect of the policies would be limited. These experiments enable other states to implement the policies effectively. The successes or failures of the policies provide insights on how to implement the policies in their jurisdictions effectively.
However, the national government is not at liberty to experiment with policies. Failure of policies of the national government may have devastating effects on the well-being of the country. California is one of the states that has experimented with many policies. It is one of the first states to experiment with various environmental regulations. Other states and the federal government have studied the successes and failures of the policy in implementing various environmental regulations in their jurisdictions (Feeley and Rubin 26).
Federalism has several costs. It allocates various tasks to the national and state government. In some instances, this may lead to duplication of duties. Duplication of duties is the major limitation of federalism. It increases the inefficiency of the governance system. In addition, it increases bureaucracy.
It forces people to comply with regulations of the both the state government and the national government (Ward and Ward 188). In addition, federalism is a very expensive system of governance. It necessitates the election of many people to governance positions. This makes it difficult for poor countries to afford to use the system. In addition, increased bureaucracy of the federal system may lead to corruption.
Federalism empowers state governments. It enables them to create policies on various issues. This may hinder the creation of a national policy on various issues that affect the country. The policy of different states may be contradictory. This is despite the fact that the states are in one country. The U.S. highlights this scenario.
Despite the fact that the U.S. is one country, it does not have a unified policy on several issues. It has 50 policies that represent the 50 states. Lack of a unified policy creates confusion and makes it difficult to govern the nation. In addition, empowerment of state governments may lead to lack of accountability if policies fail. This is due to the fact that federalism leads to overlap of responsibilities of the national and state governments.
This may make the national and state government blame each other for the failure of the policies. Hurricane Katrina highlights the conflict of authority that may exist between the federal and state government. There was confusion between the federal government and the state government on who was responsible for the rescue operation. This delayed the rescue of people who were victims of the hurricane. It led to the loss of life of many people.
Federalism may lead to uneven distribution of the wealth of a nation. It is a fact that the distribution of natural resources, industries, and employment varies from one region to another. In addition, the state governments are only concerned about the development of their regions. Therefore, they may implement policies that may have adverse effects on other states. This may create conflicts between different states.
Governments of both developed and developing countries use the federalism. The success of this system has made many countries to contemplate using the system of governance. However, prior to implementing the system of governance, it is vital for the countries to consider the cost and benefits of the system.
They should ensure that federalism enhances the strengths of the country. More than 200 years of continuous alteration of the federal system of the U.S. has enabled it to tackle some of the problems that federalism faces. Therefore, the U.S. provides a good case study for other countries that strive to implement federalism. However, the U.S. has been unable to tackle all the problems of federalism.
Works Cited
Feeley, Malcolm and Edward Rubin. Federalism: Political identity and tragic compromise. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2008. Print.
Kollman, Ken. The American political system. New York: W W Norton & Company Incorporated, 2011. Print.
Ward, Ann and Lee Ward. The Ashgate research companion to federalism. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2013. Print.