(Download) "Interstate Competition and the Race to the Top (Annual Federalist Society National Student Symposium)" by Harvard Journal of Law&Public Policy " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Interstate Competition and the Race to the Top (Annual Federalist Society National Student Symposium)
- Author : Harvard Journal of Law&Public Policy
- Release Date : January 01, 2012
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 274 KB
Description
Federalism is an essential part of the Constitution's design. The division of sovereign power between the States and the federal government helps foster interjurisdictional competition, which, in turn, checks government power. (1) Provided a right of exit is maintained, the excessive imposition of economic burdens in one jurisdiction will cause taxpayers and businesses to flee to other jurisdictions. For this reason, federalism often is seen as a friend of the free market. (2) The existence of competing jurisdictions disciplines state intervention in the marketplace. (3) But it would be a mistake to assume that interjurisdictional competition invariably favors market-oriented policies, at least insofar as alternative policy measures would enhance the welfare of state residents. Federalism is not just for free marketeers. Provided states cannot externalize the costs of their own policy choices, robust interjurisdictional competition facilitates the enactment of better public policy at the state level. (4) Rather than inducing a "race to the bottom," such competition can create a race toward the top. (5) Although those of us who generally favor freer markets believe federalism will advance that cause, those who believe more stringent regulation is welfare-enhancing should support interjurisdictional competition too. On both theoretical and empirical grounds, competition among jurisdictions is a powerful means to discover and promote the policies that are most effective at providing people with what they desire.