For much of its history, the United States had a notably decentralized
government structure. Since the 1930s, the national government has
undertaken new efforts to regulate the economy and society and to
redistribute resources. Those new efforts have implied a greater
centralization of authority in Washington. In the past the public often
supported such centralization. Public opinion about federalism has
changed. Voters are more supportive of decentralized policymaking on
many issues where they previously supported a stronger national role.
This shift in the public mood is consistent with other polling data that
indicates profound distrust in the capacity of the federal government
to act on behalf of the public good. On some issues, like national
defense, much of the public continues to support national primacy. Such
issues are often assigned to Washington by the Constitution. In
contrast, much polling finds that many citizens believe state and local
governments are likely to perform better than Washington. Americans
support a more decentralized federalism than in the past both on
particular issues and as a general matter of institutional confidence. Cato
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