Political, Fiscal and Programmatic Power - Essay Example

National Governments assumed more and more power and the original spirit of the federalism under which states had a role too diminished. Though the federalism emerged as a concept of sharing the powers of the states and the national government however, the power naturally shifted towards the national government. Though this may be considered as good however, states being the laboratories for democracy tend to have their own role too. The founding fathers of the country established this mechanism of governance in order to control the overlapping of powers between different organs of the State however, the power ultimately shifted.

Over the period of time, powers such as fiscal, political as well as programmatic have been largely in the hands of national government. This paper will therefore discuss as to whether these powers should be shifted towards the states or not in order to streamline the powers between national governments and states. Federalism in US It is argued that the federalism emerged out of a political necessity and it was established in order to consolidate the different states under one national government.

One of the plausible explanations of the federalism was actually to prevent the rise of the power holders and balance the powers between different power holders. . (Gerston, 2007) Theoretically, a federal system is based upon a system in which the overall power and authority is shared between a central government at the national level and different sub-governments. This very characteristics of dividing the power between different players actually limits the authority and also preserve the representative democracy.

As such , federalism blends both the centralized as well as de-centralized political systems thus creating a fusion of governance mechanism which can ensure transparency and balance. Historically, however, except the general assignments as outlined specifically within US constitution, there has been a critical struggle between the national governments and states to maintain the powers between themselves. The overlapping of powers, roles and responsibilities between states and national government therefore requires critical insight and exploration into the practical nature of the federalism and whether it has achieved its objectives or not.

The era from great depression to at least 1980s, even the apex court of the country gave decisions based on entrusting greater powers to the national government under the impression that strong central government is necessary for ensuring fiscal stability within the country. States and National Government National Government, in US, evolved as a result of creating a policy making entity at the top. As such the laws passed by the Congress almost touched every aspect of human life. This approach towards law making and the historical tendency of the Congressmen to pass laws with uniform policy implications for the social sphere of life at least have been historically on rise.

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