Argument on Federalist Arguments Federalism:

The diversity of preference view says that even in the long run, policies will differ across

jurisdictions because people have different preferences. Subsidiarity is a European term that means

higher-level governments should not do anything that lower levels government can do as well or better.

More generally, impact jurisdictions should be matched to political jurisdictions, he says.

The subsidiarity principle implies that public goods should be supplied by the political

jurisdiction with the largest extensive range. National defense is the obvious example. Each state would

have an incentive to free-ride on the provision of defense by the others.

In the U.S. there are many thousands of special districts that are often functionally organized.

Oppression at the federal level is difficult to escape, but mobility can counter that, he says. Gays may

move to cities like San Francisco where they are better tolerated, and indeed if enough of them move they

can become a political force.

The argument that federalism is less important now that people are more mobile makes no sense,

writes David Wheeler. Wheeler: The mobility argument is about more than preferences, it's about

checking and limiting government power. The idea is not simply that exit allows for islands of liberty but

that the threat of exit means that you don't have to leave to achieve liberty, he says.

Federalism

Federalism allows the range or scope for central government activity to be curtailed. It also limits

the potential for citizen exploitation by state-provincial units, he writes. In this sense federalism was

critical to the rise of the Industrial Revolution in England, he says. The purpose of limiting the federal

government is not to create state's rights, he adds. The powers of the federalGovernment are highly

limited by law, he argues. Where power is less limited, at the state and local levels, limits occur by
creation of the exit option, he notes. The Supreme Court has emphasized state prerogatives and autonomy

rather than liberty and citizen choice, he claims.  References:

Madison, J., & Jay, J. (1888). The federalist. GP Putnam's sons. Hamermesh, L. A., & Tsoflias, P.

I. (2013). An Introduction to the Federalist Society's Panelist Discussion Titled Deregulating the Markets:

The JOBS Act. Del. J. Corp. L., 38, 453. Madison, J. (1788). Federalist no. 57. Federalist Papers. Bork,

R. H., Dyk, T., McGinnis, J. O., Strossen, N., & Olson, T. B. (1994). Federalist Society Roundtable

Discussion. Pub. Int. L. Rev., 125. Epstein, D. F. (2008). The political theory of The Federalist.

University of Chicago Press.