The Evolving Nature of Federal-State Relations: State Activism in Education, Drug Control, and Homeland Security Policy.

Political scientists have long studied the relationship between the federal government and the states and how changes in that relationship affect American politics and policy. During the last decade the federal government has adopted a more coercive posture toward the states, and states in turn have become increasingly willing to challenge federal law and policy, even under threat of reproach. This paper analyzes the state of American federalism through the lens of three policy areas: drug control, education, and homeland security. Measures permitting the medical use of marijuana in eleven states; the backlash against the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act; and criticisms of the cost and content of efforts to safeguard national security represent formidable state-level challenges to federal policy. The federal government historically has used grants-in-aid as the primary means of encouraging states to adopt its goals. But new conditions, including the rise of direct democracy, support for devolution, state budget surpluses and growth in tax revenues, and increasing responsiveness to public opinion, have made states less dependent on federal funds, less attentive to federal priorities, and less willing to accede to federal dictates that come with strings attached. In a shift from previous decades, the public's greater confidence in state and local governments than in the federal government may further contribute to state policymakers' willingness to advance their own agendas. This paper offers findings from three policy areas that shed light on the causes and consequences of the turn toward "coercive federalism" and the states' activist response. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]