American Federalism: Punching Holes in the Myth

• Publication year: 2021

AMERICAN FEDERALISM: PUNCHING HOLES IN THE MYTH

Reviewed by Hugh D. Spitzer(fn*)

Book Review of-

SAFEGUARDING FEDERALISM: HOW STATES PROTECT THEIR INTERESTS IN NATIONAL POLICYMAKING

By John D. Nugent. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009. Pp. 344. $45.00.

Political myths are persistent, and the myth of American federalism's supposed twentieth-century decline is a tale that persists despite empirical evidence to the contrary. A new book by Connecticut College's John Nugent punches a few more holes in the myth, but it is yet to be seen whether the widely accepted version of this nation's modern federalism will be altered.

The myth is typically as follows: In 1787, the states agreed to a convention to repair the failed Articles of Confederation, but instead that convocation proposed an entirely new constitution-one creating a limited but robust national government with a powerful executive, improved taxing authority, and strong control over specified areas like foreign affairs, war, commerce among the states, the post office, currency, and navigation. But the states were left with governing the rest of Americans' day-to-day lives. States controlled the laws relating to public order, property, contracts, and domestic life, and they provided public services such as roads and transport, public records, and most courts. According to what became known as the "dual sovereignty" doctrine of federalism, state and federal activities were thus neatly split for 150 years; the national government remained sovereign within its sphere of enumerated powers, and the sovereign state governments, closer to home, dutifully provided most public services.

The Supreme Court policed this neat division until the late 1930s, when the Court buckled under pressure from President Franklin Roosevelt and a New Deal Congress, allowing a massive expansion of the national government into areas previously off-limits: economic activities within the states, labor relations, workplace safety, market regulation, agricultural production, welfare, social services, and public works.(fn1) The role of the states supposedly withered. Beginning with World War II, followed by the civil rights era and President Johnson's Great Society, even more programs and powers shifted to the now-dominant federal government. This centralization and growth...