Free Essay: Where Policy Decisions Should Be Made

The excerpts analyze the level which the U.S has achieved in terms of making policies in the federal and State governments. Most of the policy decisions in the U.S are made in the federal government which is the central government, and the various states have the power to make policy decisions in their States to govern and address the various issues. There are some of the policies which are made by the federal government on behalf of the state governments then they are distributed to the states for application and functionality. The U.S has developed in the way it makes policies and decisions, and from the excerpts, the following quotes prove this;

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Barrack Obama quoted "a single courageous state" to "serve as a laboratory experimenting with innovative solutions to our economic problems" (Donahue and Nye, 2000). Through this quote, Obama was celebrating the ability of the United States to give more power to the states in decision making and formulation of the state policies. The author of the devil in devolution John Donahue says "the words of the constitution are much more ambiguous about the division of power between the federal government and the states than Eggers and O'Leary acknowledge" (Donahue and Nye, 2000). Eggers and O'Leary argue "there is no possibility of restoring sense, order, and management "efficiency" to many governments without a substantial devolution of central power" (Donahue and Nye, 2000).

Environmental Policy

In the U.S environmental policy, the responsibility of environmental conservation is both shared responsibility for the federal government and the state governments. Every State has to enforce the environmental conservation measures among its people concerning the policies and decisions made about this by the federal government. In other words, the federal government has the role of formulating environmental policies. Then states do the actualization of these policies among the people (Miroff, Seidelman & Swanstrom, n.d.). A state makes its environmental policies in line with the federal government's policies. Still, the policies in State vary with the management, size of the State, the condition of the State among so many other aspects. "States differ in their environmental problems and the priorities of their citizens. Requiring all states to accept the same balance between environmental and economic values imposes some real risks and generates real political friction" (Donahue and Nye, 2000). This quote proves that there is a difference between the environmental policies of one state and another as well as the federal government.

The Most Persuasive Author

Donahue is the most persuading author among the three because he supports that the making of policies whether environmental, Medicaid, or other areas of life should be the responsibility of both the State and the federal government. This will be the most effective way of governance because the States will be able to create policies which fit the problems of their people best as there are problems which are best addressed by state governments than the federal governments (Donahue and Nye, 2000). The arguments of the other authors who say that the federal government should be the core creator of policies are not in any way going to support the wishes of people in the states. For example, the federal government is not able to control the environmental management in all the States. The U.S federal system encourages the laboratories of democracy but not race to the bottom because it has allowed States to make their own decisions and policies as long as they don't violate the policies of the federal government.

References

Donahue, J. and Nye, J., 2000. Governance in a Globalizing World. Cambridge, Mass.: Visions of Governance for the 21st Century

Miroff, B., Seidelman, R., & Swanstrom, T. Debating democracy.