The Politics of Coercive Federalism in the Bush Era

Abstract

During the period of the Bush Presidency, the federal government proceeded to centralize and nationalize policy in major areas formerly controlled by states and localities. The extension of federal goals and standards to such areas as education testing, sales tax collection, emergency management, infrastructure, and elections administration were among the areas of significant mandates and preemptions. The continuation of policy centralization in areas under a conservative and unified political regime shows how strong and deep the roots are for centralizing policy actions in our intergovernmental system. Over the past forty years, mandates and preemptions have become among the primary tools relied on by Congress and the president to project national priorities and objectives throughout the intergovernmental system (Kincaid 1990). The trends toward the use of coercive tools have proven to be durable and long lasting, albeit punctuated by episodes of reform. While the enactment of unfunded mandates reform in 1995 most certainly has led to some restraint, the underlying forces prompting national leaders to use these tools have proven to be persistent and compelling. The secular trends toward a more coercive and centralized federalism have survived the passage of both Republican and Democratic Administrations, as well as Democratic and Republican Congresses (Posner 1998). The beginning of the twenty-first century witnessed the marshalling of new political forces that might be expected to turn away from the instruments of coercive federalism. The ascendancy of George W. Bush to the presidency, in concert with a remarkably unified Republican control of the Congress, presaged a period of unified government presided over by unprecedented conservative political leadership not seen since before the Great Depression. Coupled with the earlier passage of Unfunded Mandate Reform Act as one of the first acts of the 1995 conservative Republican Congress, hopes for the arrest and even reversal of federal policy centralization ran high in many quarters. This article will explore whether the ascendance of the conservative regime in the White House and the Congress, coming on the heels of the unfunded mandates reform, made a significant difference in reversing the trends toward coercive federalism characterizing previous administrations and congresses. It will first offer