what is happening,” said Bruce N. Reed, President Clinton’s chief domestic policy advisor. “More people on welfare are working, and more people are leaving welfare to go to work” (Reed, 1998, p.1). Critics of the bill, however, remain skeptical of the results and say that the robust US economy is more responsible for the decline in welfare rolls.Federalism allows more people to participate the political system. Federalism also makes government more manageable, and more efficient. Federalism provides for a dispersal of power, it manages conflict and provides for unity. Federalism meets local needs, protects individual rights and creates jobs. Dye said, “Despite the strengths of federalism, it has its problems … federalism can obstruct action on national issues” (Dye, 1999 ,p.104). Federalism permits the benefits, services and costs to be distributed unevenly. For example, Medicaid is a federally funded program carried out differently in every state. Federalism does not always meet local needs; the federal government may not even consider local needs. Federalism provides for more NIMBY’s “obstructing things like airports, highways, waste disposal plants, public housing, drug rehabilitation centers, and other projects that would be in the national interest” (Dye, 1999,p.104). Federalism provides a lack of uniform policies and laws as each state can have different definitions of laws.The current swing of the political pendulum is toward devolving power back on the states. The best example of this trend is the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, which ended federal welfare programs going back to the New Deal and established in their place a system of block grants to the states. It is not clear if this devolution revolution will continue. Turning Medicaid into block grants has also been proposed, along with ending most federal entitlements (programs whose funding is pegged to ...
