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4: Federalism

  • Page ID
    204105
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    In early 2020, as the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 overwhelmed the world, the United States did not fight back as a single cohesive unit. President Donald Trump did convene a White House Coronavirus Task Force to coordinate a national plan of action, and Americans did become well-acquainted with the personal hygiene recommendations of one of its lead members, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Yet many crucial decisions — on mask mandates, business closures, remote schooling, and other matters — were left up to America’s governors, who have long borne the responsibility for managing public health policy in their respective states.

    Photograph of a member of the Nevada National Guard administering a COVID test
    A member of the Nevada National Guard administers a drive-thru COVID-19 test as part of her state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

    On the one hand, this piecemeal approach undermined America’s pandemic response. U.S. states have no legal or practical ability to close their borders, meaning that an outbreak in any state could easily spread to others. Even if a state effectively managed its infection rate, it could still suffer the consequences of its neighbors’ inability to do so. A virus doesn’t care where the lines are drawn on a map.

    On the other hand, decentralization gave America flexibility. The challenges of densely populated Massachusetts were not the same as those of sparsely populated Montana; elderly Florida faced different threats than youthful Utah. Governors’ authority to determine their states’ pandemic responses allowed them to tailor policies to fit their states’ unique needs. It also helped contain the damage from policy mistakes. For example, New York’s decision to admit COVID-19 patients to nursing homes resulted in the deaths of many elderly New Yorkers. Had a similar policy been instituted nationwide, the impact would have been far more devastating.

    The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated both the strengths and the weaknesses of American federalism, the delicate balance of power between national and state governments. From the outset, the Founders crafted the Constitution so as to unite the states enough to respond to national crises while giving them the freedom to manage their own affairs as they saw fit. That balance has shifted dramatically over the centuries, as have Americans’ beliefs about what it should be. At the heart of many contemporary issue debates in American politics — abortion, the death penalty, education, the environment, healthcare, immigration, marijuana, policing — lies this fundamental question about the proper roles of state and nation.


    This page titled 4: Federalism is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Benjamin R. Kantack (Tekakwitha Press) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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