The Advantages of a Federal System

When this country was founded, the thinkers who designed its government made a careful effort to give the people real power to impact the way the government was involved in their lives.  The more obvious way they did this was through a system of representative democracy whereby the people are allowed to choose their own leaders from among themselves with a short enough turnover that leaders must be responsive to the popular will.

Less obviously, but not less importantly, they instituted a federal system to divide powers and responsibilities among various levels of government.  This was not done simply to prevent the accumulation of too much power in the hands of single individuals, but of too many.  This was done so that one’s votes for officials could more meaningfully represents one’s beliefs.

For instance, right now, most people will claim that their votes don’t matter, and they are largely correct.  First of all, the fact that we still rely on the electoral system for choosing the President means that only a few “swing states” actually have much chance of impacting the election.  Perversely, they are the most moderate states, while those most enthusiastic in their beliefs are least likely to affect it!  However, this is only important to us because so much power has been usurped by the national government, leaving us essentially without representation except in selection of the President, where also less than 25% of the states are truly represented.

It was never supposed to be this way.  The enumerated powers of Congress and of the President were intended to be exhaustive lists of what powers they are allowed.  The point was to have a national government whose purpose would be limited to affairs within and between the states and other sovereign entities.  This separation would allow voters to select representatives for the national government as their choice on foreign policy, and on foreign policy alone!  Other matters were reserved for states each to work out on their own, freeing voters from linking their foreign policy choices with their domestic choices.

Meanwhile, because each state was free to develop its own Constitution, citizens would have a variety of options in choosing how to be governed.  Not just because each state would develop its own laws creating social conditions more or less to one’s liking, but because each provided a different division of local and state authority as well.  In some states, for instance, a mayor might be the most powerful man you’ll meet, which gives you significant power in choosing who rules you, or a series of legislative bodies could share most sovereignty, granting citizens extreme protection against corruption and tyranny.

Unfortunately, this added layer of democracy has faded from our system, and we are forced to vote as one among tens of millions for three national figures whose powers are so vast and varied that they have precious little idea for which reason(s) any given individual is supporting them.  This frees our leaders to be unresponsive and corrupt, which they have eagerly become.

If we want our politicians to be more honest, we need to make each one responsible for fewer things.  If we did, each could be held accountable for what he said he would do in each instance, and indeed each can know with more clarity what her constituents desire.  This could be achieved in either of two ways: the first would be to move closer to a unitary system and have the People elect cabinet heads, whose powers would be fleshed out in writing.  The other would be to move back toward the federal system we began with by peeling away powers (and funding) from the national government and returning it to the states to divide and use as their people see fit.

I favor a return to the federal system because it would give voters a greater proportional amount of power in deciding how they are governed, as well as the option to vote “with their feet” by leaving one state for another whose laws and governing style are more aligned with their preferences.  However, I would also support a move to elect federal department heads because it would give us much more power to influence the actual operation of federal power on us, and a clearer way for our votes to communicate our preferences on issues of national government.  No matter how it is done, I believe we need to rework our system to give voters more real power to impact the way we are governed.