One of the
main benefits of federalism is that it allows for both the tremendous power
that can come from member states taking a united stance and cultural and
related political interstate diversity. In other words, federalism is not only
a means of checking governmental power by means of splitting governmental
sovereignty between two systems of government—state and federal—but also a way
of giving empires the advantages of both united action and diversity. In the
case of the U.S., the power of uniting forces far surpasses the allowance for
interstate diversity because consolidation in Congress and the White House has
come to eclipse the power of the state governments. Although it is not
sufficient to restore a semblance of balance between the two systems of
government in the American federal system, it is nonetheless significant that
“red” and “blue” states moved in different directions subsequent to the 2010
elections both in terms of tax and health-insurance policy.
The complete essay is at Essays on
Two Federal Empires, available at Amazon.