On March 22, 2020, during a press
conference on the coronavirus, U.S. Vice President Pence claimed that the
United States is unique in that it has a federal system of public governance.
He overlooked the equivalent case of the European Union even as he stressed an
idea that is the European federal principle of subsidiarity, which means that
decisions and actions that can be taken locally are to be done locally. The
state level is next, followed by the federal level. The theory behind this
principle is that cultural, political, economic, and social diversity that
exists from state to state, especially in an empire-scale federal system such
as the E.U. and U.S., means that one-size-fits-all federal-level decisions may
not be effective everywhere. Pence’s point was that the federal government
would be playing a supportive role so the States get what they need, rather
than playing a pivotal role with the States and localities as instruments of
implementation. I contend that relative to the European Union, the United
States was at the time much less equipped to apply the principle of
subsidiarity to the coronavirus pandemic.
The full essay is at "Federalism and the Coronavirus."
