The Rebirth of Federalism: Slouching Toward Washington, 2nd Edition

by David Bradstreet Walker

Book Overview

Both a history of American federalism and an analysis of its current condition, this second edition offers up-to-date statistics and new interpretation. While considering recent developments, Walker concludes with an optimistic assessment of the overall health of the system.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566430747
• ISBN13: 9781566430746
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: CQ Press
• Length: 396 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Finding Fault and Success in an Ambiguous Federal System

Federalism is seldom discussed overtly in modern public policy debates, though it permeates so many domestic policy questions. While it is true that intergovernmental precepts like sovereignty and home rule have entered the policy lexicon in the current debate over the application of state and local sales taxes on Internet purchases, more often, the question of sorting out the proper role and scope of power for the federal government goes unasked, whether the issue is education, housing, or local law enforcement or something else.While the subject remains largely unaddressed in mainstream policy discussions, federalism was foremost in the minds of our Founding Fathers when the Republic was born. The Founders were primarily loyal to their states after all, and profoundly distrustful of overbearing centralized governments such as the one they had been forced to deal with in London.In writing the Constitution, the Founders crafted a document that was profoundly successful in separating powers among branches and balancing national interests while providing for state and local control. But as a living document, the nation has strayed considerably from the intent of the Founders. They would certainly have been distrustful of a federal role in education, housing or local law enforcement, though today, even conservatives accept that this intrusion is here to stay. The critical modern question seems to be, 'does the balance of power between the federal government and state and locals serve the nation today as effectively as possible'? or phrased another way, 'can a system evolved so profoundly from the Founders intent still function well? Perhaps no one alive today is better at answering the question than David B. Walker, whose comprehensive book on our intergovernmental system, The Rebirth of Federalism was recently published.Walker has spent most of his professional career deeply involved in the study and the practice of intergovernmental relations. Early on in his career, the late-Senator Ed Muskie tasked him with studying and shaping some of the intergovernmental programs of the Great Society. Walker moved on to become an assistant director of research studies at the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) where he oversaw many of ACIR's studies on the growth of the federal grant system and the inability of successive administrations to impose any fiscal or managerial discipline on the system at all. For the past 15 years or so Walker has been teaching intergovernmental relations at the University of Connecticut. During this time he has been in the forefront of scholars who have been analyzing the impact of the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations on the theory and practice of intergovernmental relations. The bulk of Walker's book is historical, tracing the scope of power of the colonies and colonial towns (trivia: colonies and colonial towns were considered to be synonymous), the