Once more oriented to the minimal statistics gathering and funding assistance between more or less watertight compartments, intergovernmental relations (IGR) has evolved into dynamic and highly integrated sets of behaviors, not only between agents of government but among a host of non-governmental actors, non-profit and for-profit." (Agranoff, 2008) Agranoff states that intergovernmental relations appear to have started with "the territorial organization of states, often termed in international nomenclature as

For example, we could consider a local agricultural project. The local and state expertise in determining what are the right decisions to be made on this project should be more useful and in a more timely manner than decisions that could be made at a federal level. In the current security and economic environment, the answer is probably somewhere mid-way between all the notions previously presented. From this perspective, a

This program requires the states to create their own safety standards and to implement their rail safety oversight and audit programs in measuring compliance to that program. But the diversity of legal authorities, budgets and staff levels of oversight agencies would not allow this to happen smoothly (Caruso). The proposed Public Transportation Safety Program Act of 2009 hoped to authorize the Department of Transportation to establish the minimum safety standards

However, post-Reconstruction, 'states rights' often became a code word for Jim Crow legislation. Southern states demanded the 'right' for the majority to engage in de facto segregation of schools and to institute limits upon how voting rights were exercised. Many Americans do not know that the Bill of Rights originally was only intended to govern the actions of the federal government, not the states. "The debate over whether the Fourteenth

S. constitution and the delegated powers the national government has according to the U.S. constitution makes the shift of powers from the federal government to the state governments limited by the existence of the U.S. constitution. A complete shift of powers from the state governments, in political, economic and programmatic terms toward the national government is impossible to be defined in realistic terms. Historical events determined the lines between the layers

Fiscal Federalism To the Cato Institute: The Cato Institute policy statement on "Fiscal Federalism" is an excellent example of 'throwing the baby out with the bath water.' Yes, there may be unnecessary government bureaucracy involved in the awarding of federal grants to states. But the need for more efficiency does not mean that the entire program should be scrapped. During the recent 2008 recession, many states were cash-strapped and desperately needed funds