Dividing the Job Revisited: Learning from the United States Case 1789–2006

Abstract

Little over a decade ago, a well-known US economist and practicing political scientist, Alice Rivlin, argued that the time had come (again) to rethink dividing the job of public policy between federal and state government (Rivlin 1992a, 1992b). She argued that reopening in the 1990s “the more than 200 year-old question of the desirable division of responsibilities between the states and the federal government” (1992b: 315) was necessary because (1) the federal government’s attention should be focused primarily on global interdependence; (2) policies needed to revitalize the economy should come from states; (3) states are competent and responsive enough to take on this task, and (4) the current system leads to citizen confusion over which level of government does what. She asserted that the federal government “has taken on too much responsibility and should return some of its functions to the states. A clearer division of responsibilities between states and the federal government could make both levels operate more effectively.” (1992a: 82). She proposed that the federal government take responsibility for health care financing, the states take charge of a “productivity” agenda of reforms in education and skills training, child care, housing, infrastructure and economic development, and states work together to adopt a common tax as a way of stabilizing and improving their financing role.