1.

Write a short note on New Federalism

New Federalism is also called “Devolution”, it is the devolving of federal

responsibilities to the lower level of government or moving power or responsibility
from the main organization to a lower level, usually from the Centre to the
Peripheries. It was introduced by President Richard Nixon during his tenure (1969-
1974) and hence he is known as the architect of New Federalism. Every President
since Nixon has also supported it. Although political leaders disagree on the details,
most support the general principle of giving power to the states.

Since World War II, states were relying heavily on federal money. Likewise, the
national government has also relied on the states to administer some federal
policies, a practice called ‘Fiscal Federalism’. The term ‘Grants-In-Aid’ refers to
the federal government giving money to the states for a particular purpose. There
are two general types of grants-in-aid:
Block Grants: Money given for a fairly broad purpose with few strings attached.
Categorical Grants: Money given for a specific purpose that comes with restrictions
concerning how the money should be spent. There are two types of categorical
grants: Project Grants and Formula Grants.
Project Grants: Money states apply for by submitting specific project proposals
Formula Grants: Money given to states according to a mathematical formula

Tenth Amendment to the Constitution

Nixon reversed 50 years of American Policy when he argued that the various new
domestic programs should be more of a state responsibility rather than a federal
responsibility. His proposals called for the disassembling the gathering of grants of
the city and state government had been using to finance a minimum level of
income, food, housing, medical care, education, and job training for poor
individuals and families and to subsidize city and state governments for certain
services unrelated to poverty, for the construction or rehabilitation of their physical
infrastructure, and for financing incentives to stimulate declining or otherwise
distressed economics.
The federal government uses a number of tactics to compel states to follow its
policies and guidelines. Congress can order states to comply but usually applies
pressure more subtly by threatening to withhold funds from disobedient states.

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act 1995

Sometimes the federal government orders states to do certain things, such as
obeying housing laws or environmental regulations. These demands are called
Mandates. An Unfunded Mandate is one for which the federal government provides
no money. For example, the federal government has required state and local
governments to live up to the Americans with Disabilities Act without providing
money to make buildings accessible to handicapped people. State governments
resent unfunded mandates because they drain state coffers.

One way for Congress to pass mandates is to impose regulations and standards on
state and local governments. In the past, Congress has forced state governments to
meet certain environmental standards, for example. Scholars call this practice
Regulated Federalism.

Advantages and Disadvantages

2. Write briefly on the New Deal.

New Deal program was the policies of relief, recovery and reforms to combat
effects of the Great Depression during the Presidency of Franklin D Roosevelt. It
was launched at at critical time, for example banks were closing one after the other
and many businesses were making losses, they were also reducing their labour and
their production. So millions of people lost their jobs. I’ll tell you my dear friends,
these are the basic problems. It was inaugurated on 4 th March 1933.
Roosevelt attributed the basic defects in the economic system to the administration
and incompetence of republicans. His ideology was Progressivism. When
inaugurating the New Deal, Roosevelt said, “the only ting we have to fear is fear
itself”
His reforms gave confidence to many people that they had elected a man who was
not afraid to take a bold step to solve the nation’s problem. On the very next,
March 5th, Roosevelt declared a four day bank holiday.
FDR also called Congress into emergency session where the legislature enacted,
nearly sight unseen, the President's banking proposal. Under this plan, the federal
government would inspect all banks, re-open those that were sufficiently solvent,
re-organize those that could be saved, and close those that were beyond repair. On
March 12, FDR went on the radio- giving the first of many fireside chats - to
explain his plan to Americans and to assure them that their money would be safe in
the re-opened banks. During the following weeks, Americans returned nearly $1
billion dollars to bank vaults.

To meet the immediate crisis of starvation and the dire needs of the nation's
unemployed, FDR established several public relief programs in 1933. The Federal
Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) made direct cash allocations available to
states for immediate payments to the unemployed.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) put 300,000 young men to work in 1,200
camps planting trees, building bridges, and cleaning beaches. Finally, the Civil
Works Administration (CWA) spent almost $1 billion on public works projects,
including airports and roads. Roosevelt shut the CWA after only four months,
however, because it was so costly.

The benefits of these three programs were obvious: they provided relief for
millions of Americans on the verge of outright starvation and gave unemployed
Americans jobs. Conservative attacked relieve programs as handouts to the
undeserving poor and derided the CCC and CWA as ‘make work’ projects that
added little to American society. In fact, Americans in the twenty-first century
continue to enjoy the picnic tables, the cabins, and the forest roads built by FDR's
‘tree army.’