ates rights, and wanted to return many of the powers taken up by the federal government to the states. But in many cases, this created more bureaucracy, as each of the 50 states had to establish offices to administer programs the federal government handed over. Worse, the transition was often unfunded, meaning that the costs of the programs were shifted to the states, but federal taxes were not reduced accordingly, leading to a higher tax burden on the people as states raised taxes to fund the programs. Worse, when federal taxes were cut, federal aid to the states that did exist was cut as well.But despite the appeal of cooperative federalism, there is an on-going appeal to a degree of dual federalism. The failure of President Clinton's national health care initiatives is a perfect example of an area of politics that the people feel is best held more closely, in spite of some of the benefits of a national system.Federalism is a very delicate system, for the system to work there need to be these checks and balances and these procedures for people to go through. Federalism is thought to have a number of advantages, such as: vProtecting minorities in multinational or otherwise divided societies; vChecking the power of overly ambitious rulers and thus protecting the rights of individuals and local communities; and vAllowing states and local governments greater freedom to experiment, and citizens the option of "voting with their feet" (moving to a state whose policies they approve). vAllows for more protection of rights.vMore localized decision-making vMore democratic vMore responsive to the peoplevLess central control (this is more of an advantage for businesses) The idea of limited government is so that there are restrictions on what the ruler can and cannot do. The multiple layer of government of federalism stays within these boundaries. The federal and state systems of government perform checks and balances on one another, which insure...
