American Federalism in 1990s. — страница 2

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confuse federalism with the concepts of separation of powers and checks and balances which are so important in understanding American government. While federalism does indeed divide governmental powers and involve some checking and balancing, separation of powers is a term, normally reserved to discussions of the relations between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our governments. This distinction is troublesome for many of our students. Due to my limited time I would like to state some most nuisance problems, that became a heavy burden for every American, involved in active politics in any way. First, we should mention the so-called «unfunded mandate», that became the biggest bone of contention in American intergovernmental rules. An unfunded mandate can be

said to exist when the national government requires new or improved services or level of regulation, but leaves funding largely to state and local governments. This permits national level officials and institutions to establish their own policy without any considering costs. While that seems a poor way to operate, it fits in well with some traditional American political attitudes in which costs of government services are either ignored or assumed to be borne by someone else. Some examples may illustrate the reasons for state complaints. In 1993, the Congress passed a law requiring the states to provide a system of voter’s registration which was