Federalist Paper: Federalism Is Beneficial To Society (Essay Sample)

Federalism is Beneficial to Society
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Arguments have been presented with regard to the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of the federalism especially when it comes to disaster and emergency response. The primary question is whether federalism derails or enhances response. Federalism, as argued in this paper, is a good thing for a country because it builds its capacity to respond to disasters often in terms of personnel and resources.
The first reason why federalism is good is that the federal constitutions in most countries, for example, the United States, establishes bodies specifically tasked with responding to disasters. In the USA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was established to assist the states and the people deal with preparedness to emergencies and disasters. With the federal system, it is possible to fund such a body that distributes its personnel and resources in all states for emergency and disaster preparedness.
It has also emerged that some of the disasters and emergencies are too huge to be handled by the individual states, for example, the hurricane Katrina CITATION Wei06 \l 2057 (Weitz, 2006). With such instances, there is a need for collaboration between the federal government and the state governments, and the private sector where possibleCITATION Flo14 \l 2057 (Edwards, 2014). Federalism allows each of the states to effectively respond to national crises.
Federalism can also be seen as a mechanism for overcoming some national crises, for example, political turmoil and civil wars. The federation of Canada with British North America is founded on an Act that gives the federal government the right to legislate for order, peace and good government CITATION Erk12 \l 2057 (Erk, 2012). This is a constitutional law that allows for the intervention of the federal state in cases of political turmoil and unrest. The regional governments have a critical role to play in facilitating these legislations. These are crises that could be hard to avoid if the power rested solely with the federal government.
Lastly, federalism enhances democratic participation and averts the crises that could arise in the absence of the democratic participation. Under the US federal system, a significant degree of sovereignty is practiced at the state level which leaves the sates to bear much of the responsibility and discretion for the emergency management functions. The federal government provides support and resources CITATION Sch09 \l 2057 (Schneck, 2009). This is an indication when properly constituted, federalism allows for democratic participation even at the lowest level in the federal hierarchy.
Federalism, however, is not always successful and could exacerbate some problems. The historical incident of the disintegration of the Soviet Union is an indication that the ethnic differences are a problem that could not be solved by federalism. The diversity and pluralism of the Soviet republics is the major reason for the soviet’s disintegration in 1991 CITATION Mar07 \l 2057 (Martinez-Vazquez, 2007). Federalism could cause the federal state side-lining the interests of the states causing discontent among the people.
There are cases when federalism has been accused of derailing emergency and disaster response. For example the intervention of FEMA and the federal government has been seen as undermining the role of both the state governments and the private institutions CITATION Flo14 \l 2057 (Edwards, 2014). This is often because of the bureaucracies involved and often a long chain in the decision-making.
Despite the challenges that federalism face with regard to emergency and disaster res...