Federalism. Yey or Ney?

            One of the flagship programs espoused by the Duterte- Cayetano tandem during the 2016 election was the shift in the form of government, from democracy to federalism.  Even vice presidentible Bongbong Marcos was pushing for it saying that it grants more freedom of governance to the regions or provinces.  While other candidates were against it saying that this will only promote further inequalities.  But the question that might be in everyone’s mind is: What is federalism and what are the advantages and disadvantages of this form of government?

            Let us first start with the definition of FEDERALISM.  According to Daniel J. Elazar in his book Exploring Federalism,

  Federal principles are concerned with the combination of self-rule and shared rules.  Federalism involves the linking of individuals and polities in lasting but limited union.  As a political principle federalism has something to do with the constitutional diffusion of power.

                        In a published on Rapple.com written by Pia Ranada and Nico Villarte published on January 31, c 2016, they defined federalism as:

 a form of government where sovereignty is constitutionally shared between a central governing authority and constituent political units called states or regions.

In basic terms, it will break the country into autonomous regions with a national government focused only on interests with nationwide bearing: foreign policy and defense, for example.

            This means that each sub region or state would have its own laws to implement and one central government can then focus on bigger and national issues.  Local governments or state government can then implement localized laws that will be truly responsive to their needs or their place and people such as laws on education, public safety, transportation and other concerns of the state or region.

As to the advantage of the said form of government, John Kincaid cited some them in in an article entitled, “Economic Policy- making: Advantages and Disadvantages of the Federal Model, published on March 2001:

key advantages of a democratic federation include (1) more efficient provision and production of public services tailored to the diversity of citizen and communal preferences; (2) increased competition, experimentation, and innovation in government; (3) greater responsiveness to citizen preferences, especially insofar as regional and local governments have the authority and ability to respond to those preferences; (4) more transparent and close-to-the-citizen accountability in policy-making.( Kincaid, J. (2001), Economic policy-making: advantages and disadvantages of the federal model. International Social Science Journal, 53: 85–92. doi:10.1111/1468-2451.00296.

The cited material also means that with federalism the citizens may have the power to truly participate in law making and thus the laws are them more suited to their needs.

According to Dr. Dianne Berman of Santa Monica College, the advantages of federalism include the ability to experiment with policy, meaning the various states can enact laws depending on their needs and may choose to review, amend o scrap the law if need be. 

Another advantage is the empowerment of local government, and opportunities for direct democracy and decentralization of power. Decentralization of power is usually referred to as the transfer of powers from central government to lower levels in a political-administrative and territorial hierarchy (Crook and Manor 1998, Agrawal and Ribot 1999)

However, all policies or forms of government also have disadvantages. One of the disadvantages of federalism is that there is not control of the wealth or resources of the state or province. As stated in http://occupytheory.org/federalism-pros-and-cons-list/:

Probably one of the biggest cons to federalism is the wealth factor. For example, states with national monuments such as the Grand Canyon in Arizona draw in a lot of tourist, which draws in more money than other states. Federalism keeps money within the states, so basically wealthy states get richer, and poorer states may end up in poverty one day. The gap between rich and poor grows more and more every year as well.

            When we localize the cited explanation, provinces with low incomes will be having a hard time to come up with programs for further development.  And those who do have high incomes will only continue to get richer.  The resources are not allocated to those who really need it.

            Another disadvantage with this form of government concerns conflict in authority:

                 Sharing of power between the center and the states includes both advantages and disadvantages of a federal organization. Sometimes there can be overlapping of work and subsequent confusion regarding who is responsible for what. (http://www.buzzle.com/articles/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-federalism.html)

            This may be a problem when it comes to responding to emergencies since there would be confusion as to who should do what needs to be done and eventually ending with no one taking the responsibility for it which may cost lives or property.

            The third disadvantage of federalism was identified in http://australianpolitics.com/democracy/key-terms/federalism which stated that federalism can lead to duplication of government and inefficient, over-lapping or contradictory policies in different parts of the country.  In the Philippines this may be exemplified with rules or ordinances implemented throughout the country.  One concrete example of this revolves around traffic rules.  What might be a traffic offense in one place may not be considered as a traffic offense in another hence causing confusion and conflict.

            Another disadvantage is that it may cause or intensify regionalism among the different states or regions that we have. As state in http://www.buzzle.com/articles/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-federalism.html: It can make state governments selfish and concerned only about their own region's progress. They can formulate policies which might be detrimental to other regions.  Like for example, officials may approve the creation of a dam or irrigation system for their farmers but this may mean that the neighboring regions may experience water shortage and hence affect their agriculture.

            The change in the form of government is a very serious issue since it will totally change how the citizens work with the government and also affect the services that the government will be giving its citizenry.  Therefore, carefully analysis of its procedures, policies, advantages and disadvantages should be undertaken.