Question

In Assignment One Please write a three part essay on the following:

A. Explain the Advantages and Disadvantages of Federalism

B. Explain the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Unitary System of government

C. Explain the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Confederate System of government

Answer 1

• A.In federal states, the federal government is the government at the level of the nation-state. The structure of central governments varies from institution to institution. By delegating powers from the central government to governments at a sub national level, an autonomous regions are created by many countries.
• Federalism’s Advantages:
• Fosters state loyalties: Many Americans feel close ties to their home state, and federalism maintains that connection by giving power to the states.
• Practices pragmatism: Running a country the size of the United States, with such a diverse population, is much easier to do if power is given to local officials. Likewise, state and local officials are closer to the problems of their areas, so it makes sense for them to choose policies to solve those problems.
• Creates laboratories of democracy: State governments can experiment with policies, and other states (and the federal government) can learn from their successes and failures.
• Leads to political stability: By removing the national government from some contentious issue areas, federalism allowed the early U.S. government to achieve and maintain stability.
• Encourages pluralism: Federal systems expand government on national, state, and local levels, giving people more access to leaders and opportunities to get involved in their government.
• Ensures the separation of powers and prevents tyranny: Even if one person or group took control of all three branches of the federal government, federalism ensures that state governments would still function independently. Federalism, therefore, fulfills the framers’ vision of a governmental structure that ensures liberty.
• Federalism’s Disadvantages:
• Chief disadvantages among them are economic disparities across states, race-to-the-bottom dynamics (i.e., states compete to attract business by lowering taxes and regulations), and the difficulty of taking action on issues of national importance.
  Prevents the creation of a national policy: The United States does not have a single policy on issues; instead, it has fifty-one policies, which often leads to confusion.
• Leads to a lack of accountability: The overlap of the boundaries among national and state governments makes it tricky to assign blame for failed policies.
• Critics argue that federalism cannot function well due to ignorance. Most Americans know little about their state and local governments, and turnout in state and local elections is often less than 25 percent. Citizens consequently often ignore state and local governments, even though these governments have a lot of power to affect people’s lives.
• It is also promotes regional inequalities. Natural resources, industries, employment opportunities differ from region to region. Hence earnings and wealth are unevenly distributed. Rich states offer more opportunities and benefits to its citizens than poor states can. Thus, the gap between rich and poor states widens.
• B.When the central government possesses much authority and decision-making power, it is called the unitary government. The local governing bodies simply serve as administrative arms of the central government. For an example of a unitary government are the Great Britain which is a familiar example of a unitary government; individual British counties have little of the power commonly exercised by American states.
  
• The advantages of unitary government are it is single and decisive legislative. Usually it is more efficient in the used of tax dollars but fewer people trying to get in on the money. It is also has a simple management of an economy and the government are smaller.
• One of the most advantageous points of a unitary government is that everyone feels a sense of belonging. It inspires uniformity among the states of the nation, as well as patriotism because everyone has a major thing in common. All of the laws and policies span for the entire nation, so there is no disdain over one state having more freedom or liberties than others.
• Things can happen very quickly, and on a large scale, within a unitary government. Since there is only one branch of power, things do not have lengthy processes to get through before being approved or put into effect. This is extremely beneficial for the entire nation.
• In this form of government, there are no duplication of any types of services. Often times there are federal services available, as well as local government efforts for the same services. This wastes the tax payers money. Since there are no local forms of government in a unitary government, there is no duplication and thus less tax payer money being spent on the same services.
  
• The disadvantages of using this type of system are it has slow government response. For example, there are no state National Guard that could be dispatched in emergency, troops would have to be mobilized from national authority. It is also easily looses track of local issues.
• Other than that, it is incredibly divisive form of government where everyone is forced to compete with everyone else for priority. Since it is trying to take the place of federal and state governments, the unitary governments typical get bloated and bogged down. Finally, it has huge bureaucracy that is even larger than what this country has.
• Since all of the power is centralized, it becomes all too easy for the government to fall out of touch with what the majority of citizens truly want or need. This can cause conflict between the government and it’s people, which is never a good sign for a country.
• Another major issue with unitary governments is that all local sense of security, community, and pride are lost. No one is allowed to go against the government, and every where you go in the nation is under the same rules. There is no diversity, and no sense of local pride.
• C.A confederation is commonly known as a union of political organizations. A confederate government is one where individual nations or states have united to form a confederation.The most important feature of a confederate government is that, the center derives its power from the states or provinces.
• Advantages of a Confederate Government:
• Confederacies are a unified body of individual states or provincial units. These peripheral units are stronger than the union. They coexist, but maintain their separate identities. Each region, canton, or province is considered equal, and has a say in shaping the nature of central authority.
• Decentralization of Power: States being the decision makers, this governance is completely contrary to the unitary form of government. Thus, legislation and execution is divided among the provincial and local governments. Local governance minimizes the growth of the center, and reduces the risk of it turning into a dominant union or tyranny.
• Cooperation: Every state is an independent and sovereign unit of the federation. Agreement among these equals makes decisions over common issues easier. The flow of power is from the periphery to the center, which ultimately rests on the principle of cooperation among the confederates, at least over common concerns.
• In a confederation, the citizenry is focused more; their needs are better addressed. Thus, the concept of 'citizens being the real sovereign of a nation' is realized in this type of government.
• Disadvantages of a Confederate Government:
• If the central government derives its authority from the states, it is bound to become weak. The member states have majority of the legislative powers, thus, leaving the center with no right to make or enforce laws. Also, significant subjects of national interest, like international treaties, issue of currency, or maintenance of an army may not be handled by the center.
• Financial Powers: A major drawback of the confederate government style is that, the center does not enjoy any power regarding taxation. Levying of or appropriation of taxes in order to regulate the national revenue model is not the function of the central government. Regulation of the monetary system, budgeting, and monitoring the growth of the nation does not follow a uniform policy.
• Sustenance: Confederacies are not observed as a popular form of government across the world. One reason being that, this type of government is not a long-lasting one. Though they are seen to be the most decentralized forms, there arises the question of their sustenance. Confederation is also referred to as a transformation period (as countries are seen transforming from a confederation to a federation).