In a previous post, I explained how constitutional federalism uses two levels of governments to protect liberty and restrain the state. In contrast, the new school of national federalism uses two levels of government to create a more activist and burdensome state than one level does.
First, scholars advocating national federalism do not see much, if any, role for judicial enforcement of the Constitution’s textual limitations on the federal government. That failure alone allows the federal government to be much more intrusive than permitted by the design of the Framers. Moreover, failing to enforce the enumerated powers also can kill useful policy competition among the states, because a single federal policy then replaces many state policies. Sometimes such competition deadening federal statutes are passed at the behest of state officials who, not unlike private actors, would prefer not to compete if they can create a cartel and an easier life. Constitutional federalism, in contrast, protects a beneficent distribution of powers that the Constitution’s agents cannot undermine to the public’s detriment.
Second, so-called cooperative federalism—the form of federalism that national federalists most admire—is a recipe for bigger government.
