Political Foundations
This constitutional principle divides power between national and state governments.
What is federalism?
A federal grant with very specific spending requirements.
What is a categorical grant?
Why is intergovernmental collaboration especially necessary in opioid policy?
What is Authority and responsibility are fragmented across multiple levels and sectors
Puerto Rico’s territorial status complicates representation because it lacks this.
What is voting representation in Congress?
SPLOST in Georgia is an example of this revenue mechanism.
What is a local option sales tax?
The constitutional clause that allows Congress to pass laws necessary to execute its powers.
What is the Necessary and Proper Clause?
A federal grant with broader spending discretion.
What is a block grant?
Federal involvement in local housing policy is most often justified because:
What is Housing markets and affordability problems cross jurisdictional boundaries
A state legislature passes a law preventing cities from setting their own minimum wage rates higher than the state level.
What is state preemption?
According to Daniel Elazar, American federalism is best understood as:
What is A constitutional partnership that divides authority among levels of government
The framers believed this feature of federalism would allow states to serve as testing grounds for new policies before national adoption.
What are laboratories of democracy?
This type of public policy is generally the most difficult for local governments to administer independently because it requires substantial fiscal capacity, redistributive funding, and administrative infrastructure.
What is redistributive social welfare policy?
This intergovernmental phenomenon occurs when state and federal officials from the same political party coordinate policy agendas across levels of government.
What is partisan alignment?
A small rural county receives a federal broadband grant but lacks the administrative staff and technical expertise to implement the program effectively.
What is limited administrative capacity?
or an implementation gap in intergovernmental relations.
John Kincaid argues that the shift to coercive federalism is characterized by increased federal mandates, conditions on grants, and regulatory requirements that limit state discretion.
What is the expansion of federal authority through mandates and conditional funding that reduces state autonomy?
The idea that federalism protects liberty by dividing power vertically.
What are political safeguards of federalism?
If the university administration mandates a new policy that the MPA faculty must implement, even if they disagree, this resembles what phase of federalism?
What is coercive federalism?
What are (2) political or institutional incentives that create friction in intergovernmental relations?
What is
Partisan opposition to the federal administration
Ideological resistance to federal expansion
Electoral incentives (avoiding backlash from constituents)
Bureaucratic capacity constraints
Strategic delay to negotiate better terms
Legislative–executive conflict within the state
Fear of long-term fiscal commitment once grant funding expires
After a major hurricane, a city lacks sufficient own-source revenue to rebuild infrastructure and must rely heavily on federal disaster assistance.
What is fiscal dependency?
When Professor Forney designs a course syllabus that must comply with university policy, accreditation standards, and state higher education regulations, this illustrates what defining feature of American governance?
This constitutional provision establishes that when state and federal laws conflict, federal law prevails.
What is the Supremacy Clause?
Why doesn’t increasing tax effort always increase fiscal flexibility in low-capacity jurisdictions?
What is Fiscal Capacity, Tax Effort, Own Source Revenue
In intergovernmental systems, this challenge arises when multiple levels of government share responsibility, making it difficult for citizens to determine who is accountable for policy outcomes.
What is the accountability problem in federalism.
Several neighboring states adopt similar tax incentive packages to attract the same large corporation, reducing overall revenue without guaranteeing long-term economic gain.
What is interstate competition?
or competitive federalism or race to the bottom.)
If a student technically follows the syllabus rules but creatively interprets them to maximize flexibility, this reflects what broader governance concept?
What is bureaucratic discretion?