NEGATIVE — COUNTERPLAN — STATES/FEDERALISM — ADVANTAGES 32

FEDERALISM CREATES PEACE AND STABILITY

FEDERALISM ENSURES PEACE IN THE UNITED STATES AND IS WHY IT IS NOT LIKE BOSNIA OR NORTHERN IRELAND

Steven G. Calabresi, December 1995; MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW, "A government of limited and enumerated powers," EE2001-hxm P.

Small state federalism is a big part of what keeps the peace in countries like the United States and Switzerland. It is a big part of the reason why we do not have a Bosnia or a Northern Ireland or a Basque country or a Chechnya or a Corsica or a Quebec problem.(51) American federalism in the end is not a trivial matter or a quaint historical anachronism. American-style federalism is a thriving and vital institutional arrangement -- partly planned by the Framers, partly the accident of history -- and it prevents violence and war. It prevents religious warfare, it prevents secessionist warfare, and it prevents racial warfare. It is part of the reason why democratic majoritarianism in the United States has not produced violence or secession for 130 years, unlike the situation for example, in England, France, Germany, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Cyprus, or Spain. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that is more important or that has done more to promote peace, prosperity, and freedom than the federal structure of that great document. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that should absorb more completely the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court.

FEDERALISM PREVENTS BLOODSHED AND WAR

Steven G. Calabresi, December 1995; MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW, "A government of limited and enumerated powers," EE2001-hxm P.

Some of the best arguments for centripetal international federalism, then, resemble some of the best arguments for centrifugal devolutionary federalism: in both cases -- and for differing reasons -- federalism helps prevent bloodshed and war. It is no wonder, then, that we live in an age of federalism at both the international and subnational level. Under the right circumstances, federalism can help to promote peace, prosperity, and happiness. It can alleviate the threat of majority tyranny -- which is the central flaw of democracy. In some situations, it can reduce the visibility of dangerous social fault fines, thereby preventing bloodshed and violence. This necessarily brief comparative, historical, and empirical survey of the world's experience with federalism amply demonstrates the benefits at least of American-style small-state federalism.(61) In light of this evidence, the United States would be foolish indeed to abandon its federal system.

FEDERALISM SOLVES INSTABILITY BY CREATING A COLLECTIVE ACTION PROBLEM THAT MAKES IT DISADVANTAGEOUS TO REGIONALLY REDISTRIBUTE

Steven G. Calabresi, December 1995; MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW, "A government of limited and enumerated powers," EE2001-hxm P.

Federalism greatly raises the costs of this type of regional redistribution by forcing the states or regions to put together large and unstable coalitions that include the representatives of other states and regions if they wish to redistribute, in geographically targeted ways, the national treasure. Moreover, as to a large range of issues left at the state governmental level, no such redistribution is even possible at all. Federalism thus protects against one of the chief dangers and sources of instability that any large government will face. By creating collective action problems, it makes more costly mutually disadvantageous attempts by communities to take advantage of their neighbors.(82)

FEDERALISM IS KEY TO PEACE AND STABILITY

John Kincaid, Spring 1995; Publius, "Values and value tradeoffs in federalism," EE2001-hxm P.

Certainly if one begins with The Federalist, then domestic peace and a common defense loom as significant values of federalism. The Federalists argued that small, territorially contiguous republics are vulnerable to the divide-and-conquer tactics of foreign aggressors and to domestic violence arising from squabbles among themselves. This is a classic rationale for federating republics into leagues and alliances. Indeed, some observers have defined federalism as little more than a high-level mutual defense pact.(7)

This rationale is not yet outmoded everywhere. Advocates of European union after World War II sought, among other things, to secure peace on the continent and, then, a united defense against a new potential aggressor. Newly independent eastern countries seeking accession to the now developed European Union are motivated, in part, by the same concerns. Questions of federal arrangements for mutual peace and security remain relevant in parts of Asia, the Middle East, and perhaps Africa as well.