POSC 215 – Fall 2001
Federalism, State and Local Politics
Bert Johnson

bnjohnso@carleton.edu
Office: x7170
Home: 645-5666 (not after 10pm please)
Office Hours, Willis 308
Monday & Tuesday: 10:00 am – 12:00 noon;
Wednesday 4:30-6:00pm;
and by appointment
Bert Johnson's Website

Federalism, the division of power between the national and state governments, is a fundamental feature of the political structure in the United States, but it is little studied and less understood by political scientists and laypeople. Invented by the founders of the U.S., this feature has spread to governments around the world, from India, to Australia, to Germany, to Mexico. Why is federalism so attractive as a system of government? Is there something normatively "good" about federalism, or does it just arise from political necessity? Does the meaning of the term change over time as the United States and its constitution adapt to new challenges? Can we predict the effects of federalism on the economic and political environment?

Like federalism itself, state and local governments are often relegated to the fringes of the study of American politics. This is strange, given the number and variety of state and local government systems in this country. Many interesting questions, therefore, remain to be fully addressed: How do the roles of state and local governments differ from those of the national government? What public policies should we expect state and local governments to implement and how? What can the study of state and local governments teach us about U.S. politics in general?

In this course, we will attempt to consider, if not answer, all of the above questions. This will require a significant amount of dedication and effort on all of our parts. Just as you should expect thorough preparation from me, I expect the same of all of you. Therefore, it is important that everyone complete the assigned readings and come to class prepared to discuss them. I anticipate lecturing little this term and listening a lot.

Evaluation this term will be as follows. 1) Regular participation - 20% of semester grade. 2) Four 2-3 page response papers based on the readings - 30% of semester grade. 3) Discussion leadership for policy roundtables - 20% of grade. 4) Final paper - 30% of semester grade.

Details will follow on policy roundtables and final papers. Response papers should be based on a reading or readings assigned for the day students hand them in (though they may incorporate insights from other readings) – you are not expected to do outside research for these short papers! You are free to choose what to write about, though papers should make an argument (more than one argument is probably too much for a short paper). You have some degree of choice over when to write these papers, but you must write your first by the end of week two (DATE), your second by the end of week four, your third by the end of week six, and your fourth by the end of week eight. I will grant extensions only in cases of serious emergencies beyond a student's control.

Books available at the Carleton College Bookstore:

• Ronald Weber and Paul Brace, Eds. American State and Local Politics: Directions for the 21^st Century, (New York: Chatham House), 1999.
• Daniel Elazar, Virginia Gray, and Wyman Spano, Minnesota Politics and Government, (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press), 1999.
• Laurence J. O’Toole, Ed. American Intergovernmental Relations, 3^rd Edition, (Washington: CQ Press), 2000.

The following book is not available at the bookstore. I will be giving you each a copy:

• Jacob Lentz, Electing Jesse Ventura: A Third Party Success Story, (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers), Forthcoming, November 2001.

Other materials are either Handouts or are available on reserve (RR) at Gould Library.

• Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1660), Chapter 29: "Of Those Things that Weaken or Tend to the Dissolution of a Commonwealth" (Handout)
• Articles of Confederation (Handout)
• Constitution of the U.S. (Handout)

• Federalist Papers 9, 10, 37, 46 (RR)
• Anti-Federalist Papers: (Handouts)
• Agrippa IV (Dec. 1787)
• Melancton Smith, speech, 27 June 1788

• Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (1799) (Handout)
• John C. Calhoun, "The Fort Hill Address" (1831) (Handout)
• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) (Handout)

• The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 (excerpt) (RR)
• "Southern Manifesto" (1956) (Handout)
• Martin Luther King, Jr. et al., "Letter to the President of the United States" (1958) Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers, V. 4 (1992) (RR)

• Samuel Beer, "The Idea of the Nation" in O’Toole, pp. 337-350.
• David Walker, "Variations on Dual Federalism, 1789-1930" Ch. 3 in The Rebirth of Federalism (RR)

• Timothy Conlan, "The Politics of Block Grants from Nixon to Reagan," Political Science Quarterly 99:2 (1984) (RR)

• United States v. Lopez (1995) (Handout)
• New York v. U.S. (1992) (Handout)
• Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett (2001) (Handout)

• William Riker, "Federalism" O’Toole, pp. 89-96.
• Charles M. Tiebout, "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy 64:5 (1956) pp. 416-424. (RR)

• Paul Peterson, The Price of Federalism, (1995) Ch. 2: "Functional and Legislative Theories of Federalism" (RR)
• Weber and Brace, Ch 2

• Morris Fiorina, "Divided Government in the American States: A Byproduct of Legislative Professionalism?" American Political Science Review, 88:2 (June, 1994). (RR)
• Weber and Brace, Ch 4.

• Theda Skocpol, Marshall Ganz, and Ziad Munson, "A Nation of Organizers: The Institutional Origins of Civic Voluntarism in the United States," American Political Science Review, 94:3 (September 2000). (RR)

• Elazar, Gray, and Spano, Ch 1

• Weber and Brace, Ch 9, Ch. 10

• Elazar, Gray and Spano, Chapter 6
• Elazar, Gray and Spano, Chapter 5

Monday, October 15 (MID-TERM BREAK)

• Jacob Lentz, Electing Jesse Ventura: A Third Party Success Story, (Forthcoming 2001), Ch. 1-2

• Lentz, Ch. 3

• Lentz, Ch 4, Conclusion

• Posner, "The Politics of Unfunded Mandates," O’Toole pp. 296-308
• Hosansky, "The Other War Over Mandates," O’Toole pp. 309-313

• Weber and Brace, Ch 12

• Weber and Brace, Ch 13