Civitas No. 13
On Federalism as Civic Practice
To The People of the United States:
Federalism is often praised in the abstract and neglected in practice. It is invoked as a slogan -- states’ rights, local control, decentralization -- as though the mere existence of subnational governments were sufficient to restrain power. It is not. Federalism is not a charm against consolidation. It is a discipline, and like all disciplines, it works only when practiced.
Federalism requires active citizens at every level of government. It was designed not to shift responsibility downward, but to multiply it. Authority divided among national, state, and local institutions demands vigilance proportional to its dispersion. Where citizens attend only to national politics while ignoring their statehouses and city councils, federalism becomes a hollow form -- present in structure, yet absent in substance.
Localism without vigilance reproduces the very abuses it claims to oppose. A distant bureaucracy may be resented, but a nearby one is often tolerated. State agencies issue regulations as binding as any federal rule; state executives govern by emergency powers no less expansive; state courts interpret law with equal creativity. Yet these exercises of authority pass with little notice, shielded by familiarity and the comforting belief that what is local must be accountable.
This belief is false. Proximity does not ensure scrutiny; it often diminishes it. Citizens who follow national debates obsessively may remain ignorant of legislation moving quietly through their own capitols. They denounce consolidation in Washington while neglecting it at home. In doing so, they permit the very concentration of power they claim to resist.
States are not safeguards by nature. They become safeguards only when citizens treat them as arenas of responsibility rather than symbols of resistance. A state government ignored by its people will consolidate just as readily as a national one. It will do so more efficiently, and often with less opposition.
Federalism was never intended to allow citizens to choose the level of government they prefer to monitor. It was intended to require attention everywhere power is exercised. A people who demand accountability from Congress but not from their own legislatures have misunderstood the system entirely. Federalism does not relieve the burden of self-government; it increases it.
Structure only works when inhabited by disciplined practice. Constitutional design creates opportunities for resistance; it does not guarantee their use. If citizens will not show up -- will not attend hearings, examine statutes, question officials, and accept the inconvenience of participation -- then federalism becomes a façade. The machinery remains, but the work is undone.
This failure is not theoretical. It is observable. State capitols operate in obscurity while citizens channel their energy into national spectacle. Local decisions shape property, education, policing, and commerce with minimal public attention. The result is a paradox: citizens demand decentralization while practicing disengagement, and then wonder why power continues to concentrate.
This paper offers no comfort. Federalism cannot save a people unwilling to practice it. It is not enough to praise the states as a counterweight to national authority. One must inhabit them -- politically, attentively, persistently. Self-government does not descend automatically when power is divided; it must be claimed repeatedly, wherever authority resides.
The complaint that federalism has failed is often a confession that citizens have withdrawn from its demands. A republic cannot be governed by spectators. It requires participants willing to look beyond distant villains and confront nearby responsibility.
Federalism remains viable. Its institutions still stand. What is missing is not structure, but presence. Until citizens attend to the levels of government closest to them with the same intensity they reserve for national politics, federalism will remain an argument rather than a practice.
Power flows toward those who show up. In a federal system, that truth applies everywhere.
Civitas Americana