Daniel Elazar essays

Daniel Elazar essays The thesis of Daniel J. Elazars article is that the government is an ongoing transformation between centralization to decentralization. The changing forces of centralization and decentralization are unclear. Elazar supports his theory with three main arguments. The author first examines the early years of the Republic. The events of the Revolutionary War up to the New Deal was a direct result of politicians, citizens and interest groups relying upon their states as arenas to fight battles and accomplish goals. Elazar argues that the New Deal was an acknowledgment that decentralization had its weaknesses. Centralization through federal programs during the New Deal counteracted the effects of the Great Oppression. The Nations economic system became centralized as national corporations purchased locally owned firms. Federal intervention became apparent in the legal and educational systems. Also the development and advancement of mass communication led to a total focus on Washington D.C. as the center of power. Elazar argues that states act as fail safe mechanisms and polities. Through the Nixon administration, the states acted when one part of the political system could not. The states organized the distribution of limited oil and gas resources. Governors and state agencies settled strikes and the resettling of Asian refugees. States discovered that they had power that came from being states and they did not need to wait for federal initiatives to act. State Supreme Courts began to build state constitutional foundations for public policy. Ronald Reagan attempted to implement policies that reversed government power to the states. By shifting government priorities, reorganizing grant programs, and reducing federal domestic expenditures as a proportion of the total federal budget, it established new attitudes among state governments. States learned that it no longer needed to turn to the federal government f...