The Decline of the Federal Government's Power: the New Federalism

Throughout American history, some Americans have always distrusted a large, powerful national government. In the past thirty years, advocates of reducing the size of the federal government have met with some success. Some Americans consistently opposed the expansion of the federal government's domestic programs in the 1930s and the 1960s. Beginning with the election of Republican President Richard Nixon in 1968, conservative opponents of the federal government would begin to seek ways to curtail federal power and to tilt the balance of power away from Washington and back toward the states. Under the presidency of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, the federal government further reduced spending on some social programs and sought to transfer even more control to the states. The Supreme Court also contributed to the changing the balance of power between Washington and the states by reducing the scope of federal power under the Fourteenth Amendment and permitting states more latitude to regulate a host of issues.

Advocates of restoring more power to the states often call their proposal the New Federalism. They believe that state governments are closer to and more familiar with citizens' concerns, and that state governments, not Washington, can do a better job of administering welfare and many other programs. A common aspect of the New Federalism is revenue sharing, or block grants. Instead of administering programs in the states or prescribing exactly how states must implement federal programs, block grants entail the federal government making funds available for particular purposes available to the states, but allowing each state latitude to determine how best to administer the program and use the money.