state government

state government

The Role and Impact of State Government in Modern Society

1. Introduction to State Government

The state is responsible for ensuring a peaceful, orderly, and secure society to promote the common good of the people. Over the years, this has led to an involvement in various areas of human affairs, such as economic affairs, ethnic group rights, and the general welfare. While historically the boundaries and responsibilities of the state have been uncertain, what we now call the state is rooted in the Westphalian system and the notion of the sovereign nation-state. The concept of the modern state, however, is less than perfect.

State governments play a significant role in a modern society. As responsible as state government is for the management of public programs, its role has changed in response to broader changes in society. Discussing the role of the state and its contemporary responsibilities is a complex task with no simple answers. This chapter intends to help you understand some of the complexities and contradictions that characterize a modern society and, therefore, a modern state.

2. Functions and Responsibilities of State Government

2. Protection of the Health and Welfare of the People The necessity for and the purposes of safeguarding and promoting the health and welfare of its citizens are included by all states in the police powers which they derive from the federal Constitution, ever since Chief Justice John Marshall in M’Culloch v. Maryland said, “The powers given to the government imply the ordinary means of executing them.” In more recent times, however, in delivering the opinion of the Court in National League of Cities v. U.S., which held minimum wage and maximum hour provisions under the Fair Labor Standards Act unconstitutional, Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote:

1. Protection of the People and Their Property The fostering and support of public safety and law and order designed to protect life, property, and human rights constitutes the responsibility and function toward which both the federal and state governments strive by conducting a program of activities designed to accomplish these aims.

The basic concepts of state government under the provisions of the federal and all state constitutions are similar, for the structures of these governments were modeled after that of the United States. Actually, however, each state government bears a unique stamp that is vested in large part by its incorporated constitution. Let us consider some basic aspects of state government under the U.S. Constitution, recognizing that particular structures and procedures simply go beyond the bounds of a less general statement and are elaborated upon in subsequent chapters dealing with individual states.

3. State Government Structure and Organization

The federal system per se is designed to allow the states a measure of independence from the national government. However, that constitutional design also makes it possible for the president as the executive under our unitary federal system to exert considerable influence over the administration of the laws of the states. In recent years, the executive branch of the national government has aggrandized the power of its agencies over the state executive agencies in the promulgation of regulations. Recognizing this problem and emphasizing the need for the states’ officials to be able to exercise their constitutional role in our system of checks and balances, the United States Supreme Court recently declared in a unanimous decision that federal executive officers are bound by the Privacy Act of 1974 and must comply with a state’s own official public records procedures when they request state records. That having been said, the several states have long been governed to a more paramount measure than is realized by the people of modern society.

The structure of state governments varies widely. The predominant structure is the traditional one, which is similar to that of the federal government. The least common is the council-of-state structure. More common in this century is the plural structure, which is similar to that of the federal government. The states all use a separation of powers; however, the constitution of some states provides for the power of the chief executive to be checked by the governor.

4. Challenges and Opportunities for State Governments

Several aspects of the traditional social contract, if not the very concept of the social contract itself, that have come to constitute the modern state’s legitimate domain, have been broadly challenged. The taxpayer’s tolerance for all levels of government is dwindling, especially with respect to decisions relating to the labor force, economic growth, and the natural environment. As burdens increase, traditional recipients of public support on the expenditure and regulatory side of the government ledger are expected to consider efficiency and effectiveness and are therefore vulnerable. At the same time, most of the major income and payroll tax sources are undependable and politically contentious. In addition, a regulatory reach that is appropriately disturbed by the cost and distributional consequences of regulation has been inhibited in many states. In short, large budget deficits, large differences in government spending and revenue policies within a nation, significant changes in federal-state spending relationships, and declining popular public approval of both state fiscal strategies and current service performance levels are a complex of interrelated issues with which state governments are currently confronted.

The concurrent economic, political, and social changes of the last several decades offer both challenges and opportunities for the state component of our federal system. The executive and legislative activities of state governments have been strongly influenced by economic as well as public policy developments. Several inroads into traditional state governmental authority, including those of the federal government through the commerce clause, and of the marketplace through increased interstate and international competition, have forced states to reevaluate priorities. The power to tax, another traditional exercise of sovereign state government, has been weakened in a variety of ways. Declining tax revenues, especially in comparison to a growing demand for governmental spending, have generated budget crises and persistent fiscal difficulties.