Posted by
Andrews on Sunday, February 17, 2008 5:17:58 PM
After writing at far too great a length, repeating myself over and over, talking in circles around the issue, I have finally come up with a concise argument for federalism. I still think my earlier essays are valid and important as specific applications of the theory, but I think this time I should just set out the simple concise reasoning behind federalism.
Here is the basis of federalism in a single sentence:
The more decisions made, the greater the chance someone will finally get it right.
From this, the rest of federalism follows. If we have a single national government and all decisions are made there, we have but a single decision on any given question, and thus only one chance to get it right. If we instead allow the 50 states to decide, we have 50 chances to get it right. And, if one state gets it right, eventually the rest will notice, and follow suit. (Or, if not, those who notice can change their residence, so at least they won't be trapped in a state with which they disagree.)
Of course, there are other benefits. The responsiveness of government is greater the fewer people it represents. The people can move if they disagree with the policies of a given state. If the federal government is funded by the states, the states themselves will act as a force for fiscal restraint on the federal level. States will adopt the successful policies of other states, allowing good choices to spread form state to state. And so on.
But those are all secondary consequences. I think, at its heart, the basic benefit of federalism is that it allows us to have more than one policy on a given issue, and thus have a greater chance of finding the right answer.
So, as I promised a concise essay (for once), I will cut this short, and leave it at that.
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For those interested, my prior writings on federalism can be found at the following links:
A Simple Analogy
What We Need
Why I Am Not A Libertarian
Standing By My Principles
A New Record
And, though it is not on federalism, the following essay actually makes a more radical argument, returning power to the individuals themselves, by allowing them to define marital rights and responsibilities by private contract, rather than state licensing:
Solving the Gay Marriage Debate
As the last essay points out, the logical outcome of my approach to federalism is not a "states' rights" argument, but a libertarian outcome. If it is better to let 50 states decide rather than 1 nation, it is better still to let thousands of localities, and best of all to let 300 million individuals decide. I do favor restoring power to the states, but only on those matters that need a state-wide decision. In reality, I would prefer many decisions be made for a county, city, township, or neighborhood. And, eventually, I would like a lot of decisions now made by the state to be made by individuals themselves. Returning power to the states is not a final goal, just a step along the way to restoring individual autonomy.