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The real problem, in my opinion, is that we're making more and more centralized decisions. Federalism properly done lessens the pressure to come up with complex

The real problem, in my opinion, is that we're making more and more centralized decisions. Federalism properly done lessens the pressure to come up with complex gerrymandering and voting schemes by lessening the election pressure altogether. It adds more power to other important democratic mechanisms: free speech and vote-with-your-feet. The power of free speech is improved because a state legislator has fewer constituents, so each group of 100 with similar interests matters a lot more. And, at the end of the day, if a city or state is really screwing things up, people (not everyone, but enough) can relocate to somewhere that is doing a better job. Eliminating gerrymandering (how? how will it get passed?) and new voting schemes (which? how will it get passed?) are interesting, but federalism already exists (10th amendment), it's just underemphasized.

Dayshine 9y ago
The downside is increased governance costs due to duplication of bureaucracy, increased complexity of legal systems, and more confusing everyday laws (as fewer people = less documentation and support services). Which all means "vote-with-your-feet" is actually far harder to do, as all your everyday legal knowledge is useless in other states.
- humanrebar 9y ago
  The counterargument is that increased layers of bureaucracy is also expensive, possibly more expensive. And we already have byzantine regulations, so it's not all that much of a downside. And, at the end of the day, we can talk to our city councilmen about the unfairness of complicated regulations. And cities can brag about their simple and fair legal systems to get people to want to move there.
arcbyte 9y ago
Theres probably some kind of quantifiable tendency to centralize over time that arises from some aspect of our system. Addressing that would help better effect federalism.

Dayshine 9y ago

The downside is increased governance costs due to duplication of bureaucracy, increased complexity of legal systems, and more confusing everyday laws (as fewer people = less documentation and support services). Which all means "vote-with-your-feet" is actually far harder to do, as all your everyday legal knowledge is useless in other states.

humanrebar 9y ago
The counterargument is that increased layers of bureaucracy is also expensive, possibly more expensive. And we already have byzantine regulations, so it's not all that much of a downside. And, at the end of the day, we can talk to our city councilmen about the unfairness of complicated regulations. And cities can brag about their simple and fair legal systems to get people to want to move there.

arcbyte 9y ago

Theres probably some kind of quantifiable tendency to centralize over time that arises from some aspect of our system. Addressing that would help better effect federalism.