Free Essay about Dual Federalism and Cooperative Federalism

Federalism is a political structure of administration where different governments come together and exhibiting control over a specific territory and people. Such a system works in such a way that control powers are appropriately divided between the central and state governments, both on politics and administration. Historically, between 1789 and 1945, the United States experienced a dual system of government with a clear constitutional outline of both the national and state governments (Delaney, 2010). Each of the governments has distinct roles, with the federal government handling defense, foreign policy, and international trade as its core areas, while the state governments work on regional, economic, and criminal issues. With such an establishment, the constitution distinctively left no gaps in governance and overlapping of powers. In the last century, federalism underwent some evolution in which cooperation between the national and state governments developed a closer relationship resulting in a cooperative of the federal system (Delaney, 2010).

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The significant features of the dual federalism and cooperative federalism lies in their administrative approach and division of power. In the dual federalism system, the functionality and powers of both the central and state governments are distinct, with none overlapping into the mandate of the other (Delaney, 2010). Moreover, the spheres of operation for both the governments are also distinct from the two exhibiting sovereignty within the confines of the spheres. In the case of the cooperative federalism, the distinction between the powers and responsibilities between the state and the central governments are separated. Besides, there is no existence of separate operational spheres and each of the governments working in some form of a cycle, including the instances of policy formulation. Dual federalism exhibits a hard kind of structure, thus making decisions and resolving of issues experiencing a complex structure. This is in contrast to the situation in cooperative federalism where more flexibility is experienced, therefore an opportunity for better intergovernmental relations and operations.

Over the years, dual federalism has experienced reduced popularity, with the major contributing factor being the occurrence of crises. In most of the instances in which different forms of disasters have come into play, the national being more visible to the people becomes the main focus. A significant explanation for such an occurrence is that more action is demanded upon governments whenever a crisis occurs (Delaney, 2010). Besides, in many instances of disasters, the contributing factors usually seem more significant than the capabilities of the state governments. The central governments are then forced to assist in making a fix of the situations. With a recurrent of such incidences, there has been a gradual shift from the dual federalism structure to the cooperative federalism where both governments can both work together on formulating policies and solutions, especially in times of crises. In the court case of Wickard v. Filburn, the court ruled that the federal government had the authority of regulating wheat production whether for personal consumption, although such responsibility rested with the state governments. With such a ruling, the federal government had its role expanded, giving the Congress an opportunity of making regulations even for the states in almost everything.

County Government and Special Districts

County governments and Special Districts differ in various perspectives. The County governments are divisions within states, with specific boundaries and some level of administrative authority in the region. Special districts on a different perspective are distinctive units of governance distinct from the local governments with some degree of independence and administrative control (Strauch, 1987). In most cases, the formation of Special Districts is for the performance of a particular specific task or some set of functions with related functions. Special Districts usually work to perform specific tasks within particular zones with direct impact on the people around. Such functions include fire protection, cemetery management, and sewage & water provisions.

County governments, on their part as state agents, have more roles that extend to the entire country through the performance of the elected officials. Some of the core responsibilities of the County governments include the enforcement and administration of state laws, assessment of properties within their territories, collection of taxes, and recording of public documents (Strauch, 1987). Besides, they also issue licenses and conduct elections within their boundaries. While the county governments are the creations of the constitution, Special Districts are created by the local communities to meet the specific needs of a particular confine. As such, the funding of Special Districts comes from the residents as well as the local property tax, which finances most of the infrastructural developments. For the County governments, their funding is mostly from the local revenue, which includes sales, property, fees, and taxes as well as the transfers from the federal and state governments (Strauch, 1987).

The county governments have councilors, who are democratically elected as the local representatives. The roles include investigating residents' queries, communicating of council decisions, and the leader to the different business groups within the locality. Being an elected official, the councilors are answerable to the state governments. For the Special Districts, there is usually a chosen official among the members of the particular locale, who then takes the responsibility of leading the different initiatives within the area. The selected individual works with a committee that spearheads the different sectors for which the district is formed.

References

Delaney, E. F., (2010). From dual to cooperative federalism: The changing structure of European law, by Robert Schutze. Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 41(2), 349-359. doi:10.1093/publius/pjq017

Strauch, K., (1987). Government corporations, special districts, and public authorities, their organization and management: A selected annotated bibliography. Government Information Quarterly, 4(4), 405. doi:10.1016/0740-624x(87)90019-0