Mandate Madness: How Congress Forces States and Localities to Do Its Bidding and Pay for the Privilege

ISBN-13: 9781412853729 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 302 str.

James T. Bennett

Opis

What do drivers' licenses that function as national ID cards, nationwide standardized tests for third graders, the late unlamented 55 mile per hour speed limit, the outlawing of the eighteen-year-old beer drinker, and the disappearing mechanical lever voting machine have in common? Each is the product of an unfunded federal mandate: a concept that politicians of both parties profess to oppose in theory but which in practice they often find irresistible as a means of forcing state and local governments to do their bidding, while paying for the privilege.Mandate Madness explores the history, debate, and political gamesmanship surrounding unfunded federal mandates, concentrating on several of the most controversial and colorful of these laws. The cases hold lessons for those who would challenge current or future unfunded federal mandates. James T. Bennett also examines legislative efforts to rein in or repeal unfunded federal mandates. Finally, he reviews the treatment of unfunded mandates by the federal courts. Those who find wisdom in America's traditional federalist political arrangement maintain--perhaps with more wishfulness than realism--that the unfunded federal mandate has not yet joined death and taxes as an immovable part of the modern political landscape.

Spis treści

Acknowledgments

1 Introduction: The Mandate Temptation
2 From Federalism to Coercion: A Brief History of Mandates

I Roads, Rum, and Restraints

3 Drinking, Driving, and Dole: How Washington Mandated a 21-Year-Old Drinking Age to the States
4 "I Can't Drive 55"? Oh Yes You Can!
5 Motorcycle Helmets and Seat Belts: The Mandates That Weren't

II Abcs, Ids, and Voting: Mandates for the Twenty-First Century

6 No Child Left Behind: When George W. Bush Decided to Teach Your Children Well (or Otherwise)
7 The Help America Vote Act: Good-bye, Lever Machines; Hello, Coercion
8 REAL ID: The States Fight Back
9 Will Mandates Never Cease?

Index

O autorze

James T. Bennett