Anton T J
Brown University, RI, USA.
J Health Polit Policy Law. 1997 Jun;22(3):691-720. doi: 10.1215/03616878-22-3-691.
This paper explores a number of popular but largely inaccurate myths about American federalism in order to clarify the fundamental structures and processes that characterize American federal governance. Examination of financial and political trends over the past several decades reveals the development of a form of functional specialization among national, state, and local governments based on pragmatic responses to policy problems rather than decisions based on clearly articulated "principles." These responses have increasingly come from states in a wide variety of policy areas, including health care, where the energetic reform activity of the past decade provides a sharp contrast to the inability of the national government to enact reform. Recent pressure to devolve more authority to the states is thus much more than an ideological fad; it reflects widespread agreement among political elites that state and local governments have become capable governing partners. Nonetheless, there are limits to devolution which guarantee that close fiscal and political ties between the nation and the states will remain in place. Devolution does not, because it cannot, mean separation.
本文探讨了一些关于美国联邦制的流行但大多不准确的误解，以阐明美国联邦治理的基本结构和过程。对过去几十年金融和政治趋势的考察揭示了一种基于对政策问题的务实回应而非基于明确阐述的“原则”所做决策的国家、州和地方政府之间功能专业化形式的发展。这些回应越来越多地来自各州在广泛的政策领域，包括医疗保健领域，过去十年积极的改革活动与国家政府无法进行改革形成了鲜明对比。因此，最近将更多权力下放给各州的压力远不止是一种意识形态上的时尚；它反映了政治精英们的广泛共识，即州和地方政府已成为有能力的治理伙伴。尽管如此，权力下放是有限度的，这确保了国家与各州之间紧密的财政和政治联系将继续存在。权力下放并不意味着，也不可能意味着分离。
