Federalism: state and local governments

The fifty states are quite diverse in size, population; climate, economy, history, and interests. The fifty state governments often differ from one another, too. Because they often approach political, social, or economic questions differently, the states have been called “laboratories of democracy”. However, they do share certain basic structures. The individual states all have republican forms of government with a senate and a house. (There is one exception, Nebraska, which has only one legislative body of 49 “senators”). All have executive branches headed by state governors and independent court systems. Each state has also its own constitution. But all must respect the federal laws and not make laws that interfere with those of the other states (e.g., someone who is divorced under the laws of one state is legally divorced in all). Likewise, cities and local authorities must make their laws aid regulations so that they fit their own state’s constitution.

The Constitution limits the federal government to specific powers, but modern judicial interpretations of the Constitution have expanded federal responsibilities. All others automatically belong to the states and to the local communities. This has meant that there has always been a battle between federal and state’s rights.

The traditional American distrust of a too powerful central government has kept the battle fairly even over the years. The states and local communities in the US have rights that in other countries generally belong to the central government.

Most states and some cities have their own income taxes. Many cities and counties also have their own laws saying who may and may not own a gun. Many airports, some of them international, are owned and controlled by cities or counties and have their own airport police. Finally, a great many of the hotly debated questions which in other countries are decided at the national level, are in America settled by the individual states and communities.

A connecting thread that runs all the way through governments in the US is the “accountability” of politicians, officials, agencies, and governmental groups. This means that information and records on crimes, fires, marriages and divorces, court cases, property taxes, etc. are public information. It means, for example, that when a small town needs to build a school or buy a new police car, how much it will cost (and which company offered what at what cost)will be in the local newspaper. In some cities, meetings of the city council are carried live on the radio. As a rule, politicians in the US at any level pay considerable attention to public opinion. Ordinary citizens participate actively and directly in decisions that concern them. In some states, such as California, in fact, citizens can petition to have questions (i.e. “propositions”) put on the ballot in state elections. If the proposition is approved by the voters, it then becomes a law. This “grass roots” character of American democracy can also be seen in New England town meetings or at the public hearings of local school boards.

Adding this up, America has an enormous variety in its governmental bodies. Its system tries to satisfy the needs and wishes of people at the local level, while at the same time the Constitution guarantees basic rights to anyone, anywhere in America. This has been very important, for instance, to the Civil Rights Movement and its struggle to secure equal rights for all Americans regardless of race, place of residence, or state voting laws. Therefore, although the states control their own elections as well as the registration procedure for national elections, they cannot make laws that would go against an individual’s Constitutional rights.

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POLITICAL ATTITUDES

It’s often been said and does seem to be true: Americans seem almost instinctively to dislike government and politicians. They especially tend to dislike “those fools in Washington” who spend their tax money and are always trying to “interfere” in their local and private concerns. Many would not doubt agree with the statement that the best government is the one that governs least. In a 1984 poll, for example, only a fourth of those asked wanted the federal government to do more to solve the country’s problems. Neighbourhoods, communities, and states have a strong pride in their ability to deal with their problems themselves, and this feeling is especially strong in the West.

Americans are seldom impressed by government officials (they do like royalty, as long as it’s not theirs). They distrust people who call themselves experts. They don’t like being ordered to do anything. For example, in the Revolutionary War (1776-1783) and in the Civil War (1861-65), American soldiers often elected their own officers. In their films and fiction as well as in television series, Americans often portray corrupt politicians and incompetent officials. Anyone who wants to be the President isn’t qualified. Their newsmen and journalists and television reporters are known over the world for “not showing proper respect” to governmental leaders, whether their own or others. As thousands of foreign observers have remarked, Americans simply do not like authority.

Many visitors to the US are still surprised by the strong egalitarian tendencies they meet in daily life. Americans from different walks of life, people with different educational and social backgrounds, will often start talking with one another “just as if they were all equal”. Is everybody equal in the land that stated - in the eyes of God and the law - that “all men are created equal?” No, of course not. Some have advantages of birth, wealth, or talent. Some have been to better schools. Some have skins or accents or beliefs that their neighbours don’t especially like. Yet the ideal is ever-present in a land where so many different races, language groups, cultural and religious beliefs, hopes, dreams, traditional hates and dislikes have come together.

All in all, what do Americans think of their system of government? What would “We the People” decide today? One American, a Nobel Prize winner in literature, gave this opinion: “We are able to believe that our government is weak, stupid, overbearing, dishonest, and inefficient, and at the same time we are deeply convinced that it is the best government in the world, and we would like to impose it upon everyone else.”

Of course, many of today’s 240 million Americans would disagree in part or with all. “Who is this one American,” they might ask, “to speak for all of us?”

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COURTS IN THE UNITED STATES

Courts in the United States, judicial organs of government, comprising two principal systems: the federal courts, referred to as United States courts, and the state courts. The federal courts were provided for in the Constitution of the United States on the theory that the judicial power of the federal government could not be entrusted to the states, which was necessary for a strong national government. Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789, organizing the Supreme Court of the United States and establishing a system of federal courts of inferior jurisdiction.

Federal Courts

The courts established under the power granted by the U.S.Constitution are known as constitutional courts. Judges of constitutional courts are appointed for life by the President with the approval of the Senate. They are the district courts, the Courts of Appeals (before 1948, Circuit Courts of Appeals), and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is the highest appellate tribunal in the country and is a court of original jurisdiction in some cases. The Supreme Court is also the final judicial arbiter of federal constitutional question.

Other federal courts are called 1egislative courts. These are the Claims Court, the Court of International Trade, the Tax Court, and the territorial courts established in the federally administered territories of the United States.

State Courts

Each state has an independent system of courts operating under the constitution and laws of the state. The character and names of the courts differ from state to state. The state courts as a whole have general jurisdiction, except in cases in which exclusive jurisdiction has been vested in the federal courts.

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COST OF GOVERNMENT

The average cost of all governments- federal, state, and local- to each man, woman and child in the United States is 4539$ a year. About two-thirds of all taxes collected go to the federal government.

The individual income tax provides the federal government slightly less than half its revenues. A person with an average income pays about 11 per cent of it to the government; those with very large incomes must pay up to 50 per cent. Many states also have their own income taxes. Many other taxes- on property, entertainments, automobiles, etc. - are levied to provide funds for national, state and local governments.

Federal government spending for defence purposes, including military help to other nations, has fallen as a portion of total government expenditures from 58.7 per cent in 1958 to 25.7 per cent in fiscal year 1981. The remaining 74.3 per cent of the federal budget has gone into public welfare programmes, development of water and land resources, public health and education. As a result of the expansion and increased costs of government services, the national debt has increased greatly since World War II.

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