But thats just as true of the nationalist model that progressives favor. But we have ignored the possibility that minority rule might promote a similar set of aims, and thus offer another tool for helping us transition from a world of racial oppression to one of genuine equality. We dont worry about this representational kaleidoscopelet alone condemn it as segregatedmerely because one group or another is taking its turn standing in for the whole. federalism, argues, progressives can respond to President Trump and congressional gridlock Sign up for our email newsletter! But having a Democrat in the White House was just too tempting for most progressives. cities and other local governments. If progressive leaders hold their ground, they can shield their constituents from the policies they most oppose and maybe even force the new Administration to seek compromise. ------------------------------------------, The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a stronger centralized government and a national bank, struck down the Medicaid expansion provision. Democracyis an independent organization. Heavily indebted cities and states may find fighting the federal government is too expensive. Minority rule, by contrast, pulls dissenters into the project of governance. Federalism and localism, in contrast, depend oneven glory inthe idea of minority rule. People who dont like states rights tend to be dismissive of the 10thAmendment. Young describes the 10thAmendment as reading guidelines for other parts of the Constitution. The Court has condemned majority-minority electoral districts as political apartheid. A conservative majority also held in City of Richmond v. J.A. Next, states can also resist federal policy by engaging in what one might call overcooperative federalism, the federalism equivalent of a union working to the rule. Labor unions understand that a strike isnt the only means of protest. The second decision involved the Affordable Care Act. Lunch will be served. If states or cities refuse to comply, President Trump has threatened to cancel their federal funds, but thanks to the U.S. Constitution, its an empty threat. Is progressive federalism an oxymoron? Changing policies in these areasand many moreis possible only if cities and states lend a hand. of programs and services, bolstering citizen Even as trust in the federal government 2 The Rationale for Federalism And its time progressives recognized that federalism isnt just for conservatives. Think, for example, about where groups we would normally call a minority now actually constitute a majority: a mostly African-American city like Atlanta, a city such as San Francisco where the majority favors same-sex marriage, or a state like California or Texas where Latinos will soon be in the majority. sponsor innovation, including waivers, conditional In the early 1990s, Michigan and Wisconsin, led by Republican governors, used federal money to enact Welfare to Work schemes within the very welfare programs they sought to topple. Protecting a state or citys residents from financial fraud is an effectiveand sure-to-be popularmethod of progressive resistance. Beginning in the late 1950's and lasting through the late 1960's, federalism went through a creative phase that saw a flurry of new programs and a greater linkage of the federal, state, and local governments. with 14 million workers and combined We often associate federalism with conservatism, but that's pure foolishness on our part. For years, states rights and federalism have been a right-wing cause, but now the tables are turning. The less obvious is that, viewed through the lens of federalism, we might imagine these sites as opportunities for empowering racial minorities rather than oppressing them. Politicians must reach out across state or party lines to fix the problem. Your embrace of federalism has a lot to do with whose ox is being gored. When people invoke federalism, he says, it is because they think it is going to do something that they prefer to have done. Federalism is simply, completely, opportunistic, agrees Sanford Levinson, a professor of law and government at the University of Texas. In Souters view, the Lithuanian and Polish wards of Chicago and the Irish and Italian political machines in Boston helped empower these groups. handle problems. Federalism of old involved states rights, a trump card to protect instances of local oppression. In that case, the Court struck down a gun-control provision that required local law enforcement to carry out background checks, effectively ensuring that uncooperative federalism would be here to stay. It can be a source of resistance Progressives have lost power in Washington. Minority rule, by contrast, allows racial minorities and dissenters to act as efficacious political actors, just as members of the majority do. of those related to the military) are on course to The political principles . Today, Think about the movement to bring religion into schools. Iconic measures like the First and Fourteenth Amendments, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act all offer rights-based protections for minorities. Todays federalism involves a muscular national government that makes policy in virtually every area that was once relegated to state and local governments. In a coda to the decision upholding the constitutionality of the Acts individual mandate, Chief Justice John Roberts (with six other Justices in agreement), held that the Obama Administration could not force states to expand Medicaid by threatening to strip them of all Medicaid funding. Policies that require states and cities to run health and safety inspections as a prerequisite to federal action (in the housing voucher and environmental contexts, for example) are particularly susceptible to overcooperative federalism. One might accept all of these arguments and yet still worry about local power because of the twin problems of racism and parochialism. by using the substantial powers of federalism This means that states can shape policy simply by refusing to partner with the federal government. The most important guarantors of racial equalitythe Fourteenth Amendment, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Actwere passed at the national level and resisted at the local level. Unfortunately, the moment one mentions federalism many progressives stop listening. The San Francisco City Attorneys Office, with which both of us work, has used this power to great effect: It has sued tax preparers, mortgage lenders, and prescription drug companies for violating federal law. The hope, as part of a "progressive federalism," is that these states and cities will have the capacity to chart a course distinctly different from the one being pursued by the federal government. Progressive federalism has a long, rich history Or These lawsuits often reach beyond Californias borders, allowing city and state officials to play a role in shaping nationwide policy. Blue cities and states can learn from the San Francisco model. If the next Democratic presidential nominee pushes for universal pre-kindergarten, he or she can look to states and cities for support: Places as different as Oklahoma and New York City have successfully implemented the policy. Californias statute allows city and state officials to protect their residents from harms that a municipal ordinance or state law might not cure. Federalism is principally the theory by which political power is divided between a national and state government, each having their own clear jurisdiction. We often forget that the federal governments administrative capacity is modest, relatively speaking. Note, for instance, how different these instances of minority rule looked from the bread-and-butter activities of other proponents of same-sex marriage. The deep alienation from the national government that the left is feeling right now was mirrored up through the election by the deep alienation from the national government on the right, when you had Republican states doing whatever they could to torpedo national legislation, he says. (And one of the authors of this essay has spent more than a decade arguingincluding in the pages of this journal that federalism doesnt have a political valence.) Federalism is a form of political organization that seeks to distinguish states and unites them, which assigns different types of decision-making power at different levels to allow a degree of political independence in an overarching structure. We miss the possibility that governance can be a vehicle for dissent. laboratories of democracy, experimenting prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to The third rationale is that it can enable a well as state colleges and universities. We expect dissenters to speak truth to power, not with it. But these reforms would not be fully implemented until 2014-2019, and the law had to run perilous legal and partisan gauntlets first. It also deprives whites of the comfort and power associated with their majority status. The war has continued with the Obama Administration, which has struggled to rope states and localities into cooperating with its education agenda. tool for progressive change now. Neither theory requires you to like every policy passed at the local or state level any more than a nationalist has to agree with everything that Congress passes. Why should we care? officials. Dissent helps create the deliberative churn necessary for an ossified political system to move forward. They thus look to national power, particularly the First and Fourteenth Amendments, to protect racial minorities and dissenters from threats posed at the local level. Similarly, states can thwart federal mandates by insisting on following the law to the letter. Antimonopoly: A Master Narrative for Democracy. It was trying to elbow out a little space for the federal government to exist too. The result, he says, was a rough balance between the government and constituent states, and at each level there is a huge range of divisions of power. When either the states or the national government thinks the other is overstepping its authority, it turns to the judiciary, which serves as a referee. Minority rights, then, are not the only means available for protecting political outliers and integrating them into the polity. But we typically think of participation in highly idealistic and individualistic terms while ignoring crass concerns like who wins and who loses. Progressive Federalism Definition Movement that gives state officials significant leeway in acting on issues normally considered national in scope, such as the environment and consumer protection. Thats because its hard for progressive issues to get traction these days. Hamilton organized the Federalist Party to support this vision and pushed Congress for a national bank. Instead, they have to suit up and get in the game. The last amendment of theBill of Rightsis the 10th, which provides:The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.This is a truism, Mack explains, that sayscertain powers were given to the national government and that traditional powers were still possessed by the states. 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