Federalism and the Tug of War Within
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$75.00 (06)Description
Federalism and the Tug of War Within explores how constitutional interpreters reconcile the competing values that underpin American federalism, with real consequences for governance that require local and national collaboration. Drawing examples from Hurricane Katrina, climate governance, health care reform, and other problems of local and national authority, author Erin Ryan demonstrates how the Supreme Court's federalism jurisprudence can inhibit effective inter-jurisdictional governance by failing to navigate the tensions within federalism itself.The Constitution's dual sovereignty directive fosters an ideal set of good governance values, including checks and balances, accountability, local autonomy, and local and national synergy, that are nevertheless in constant competition. This inherent "tug of war" is responsible for the epic instability in the Court's federalism jurisprudence, but it is poorly understood.
With new conceptual vocabulary to wrestle with old dilemmas, Ryan traces the development of federalism's tug of war, and proposes innovations to manage judicial, legislative, and executive efforts with more focus. Her analysis clarifies how the tug of war is already mediated through balancing, compromise, and negotiation. She proposes a Balanced Federalism model that mediates tensions on three separate planes: fostering balance among competing federalism values, leveraging the functional capacities of the three branches in interpreting federalism, and maximizing the wisdom of both state and federal actors in so doing. The new framework better harmonizes values that-though in tension-have made the American system of government so effective and enduring.
Features
- Explains the pendulum-like vacillations in the Court's federalism jurisprudence in terms of the underlying "tug of war" between competing federalism values
- Reveals federalism interpretation as the choice between alternative theoretical models, each faithful to constitutional directives but emphasizing different trade-offs among values
- Applies its theoretical analysis in concrete examples of interjurisdictional crises, such as Hurricane Katrina, air and water pollution, nuclear waste, health reform, and climate governance
- Reveals the interpretive role of state as well as federal actors and of political as well as judicial actors in its paradigm-shifting recognition of intergovernmental "negotiated federalism"
- Proposes a "Balanced Federalism" model that explicitly mediates the values tug of war and allocates responsibility for federalism interpretation among all state and federal actors--providing the missing theoretical justification for existing political safeguards while preserving a role for limited judicial review
- The Balanced Federalism alternative provides missing theoretical justification for existing political safeguards while preserving a role for limited judicial review
- In exploding the dominant "zero-sum" model, demonstrates how federalism in practice differs from federalism in rhetoric, and offers hope for moving beyond the more paralyzing features of the discourse toward more workable, effective governance
Reviews
"Erin Ryan offers an astute analysis of constitutional federalism both substantively and procedurally, and illustrates her points with exceptionally helpful examples from the national response to the Katrina disaster and a wide range of other federal and state efforts to deal with environmental problems. Her work is likely to become one of the handful of books that are part of the regular discourse about federalism."
--Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
"This is a wonderful book. Professor Ryan places contemporary federalism debates in their broader historical and theoretical context, analyzes the sweep of Supreme Court precedent and legal scholarship, and reveals both the challenges and the opportunities that federalism presents for lawmaking. And, in an analysis that is simultaneously aspirational and pragmatic, Ryan proposes a new, balanced pathway for crafting laws that address some of the most pressing issues facing the nation. A tour de force of excellent legal analysis and scholarship."
--Richard Lazarus, Howard J. and Katherine W. Aibel Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
"This impressive volume challenges both the New Federalism of the Rehnquist and Roberts Courts and the anything-goes jurisprudence of its opponents, offering in their place a persuasive treatment of the values underlying constitutional federalism and a nuanced account of how to reconcile the tensions among them. This book should be of interest to all scholars of federalism."
--G. Alan Tarr, Director of the Center on State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University
"Amidst all that has been written about federalism, Professor Erin Ryan has written a brilliant book that offers a new way of thinking about this important topic. At a time when some of the most important social issues are once again being fought over in terms of states' rights, Professor Ryan carefully examines the underlying values of federalism and offers a new approach, Balanced Federalism. This is a book that judges and lawyers, as well as all interested in American government, will greatly benefit from reading."
--Erwin Chemerinsky, Founding Dean, University of California-Irvine
About the Author(s)
PROFESSOR ERIN RYAN teaches federalism, environmental and land use law, property, and negotiation. She taught at the University of California-Hastings College of the Law before joining the full-time law faculty at The College of William and Mary in 2004. She was awarded a Fulbright grant to study multijurisdictional governance in China for the 2011-12 academic year, and she joins the faculty at the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College thereafter. Ryan is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review and a Hewlett Fellow at the Harvard Negotiation Research Project. She clerked for Chief Judge James R. Browning of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Professor Ryan has presented on federalism theory at academic and administrative venues in the United States, Europe, and Asia, such as the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. She advised National Sea Grant interjurisdictional governance projects involving the Chesapeake Bay watershed and consulted with the United States Air Force and various universities on developing sustainability programs. She has appeared on National Public Radio, in the Chicago Tribune, the London Financial Times, and other news outlets, and in the PBS Newshour and Christian Science Monitor's Patchwork Nation project.
