Center for the Study of Federalism

John Kincaid, meynerc@lafayette.edu (Lafayette College)
Richard L. Cole, cole@uta.edu (University of Texas, Arlington)

Theme: "Obama and States’ Rights: Progressive or Regressive Federalism?"

In the first months of his administration, President Barack Obama promised to recognize a revitalized role for the states in environmental protection, consumer relations, criminal justice reform, education, financial regulation, and other domestic issues. Called by some “progressive federalism,” the Obama approach would appear to suggest a new area of federal-state relations, one relying less on coercive tactics of recent years (such as preemptions, sanctions, mandates, and lawsuits) and more on a cooperative spirit where, at least in certain areas, states might once again be encouraged to assume their traditional role as “laboratories” for experimentation and innovation in the federal system. CSF therefore invites panel and paper proposals examining federal-state relations in the Obama presidency from a variety of approaches, including those theoretical, speculative, and empirical in nature. Is there evidence of a real shift in state-federal relations? Are such shifts likely to result in new and innovative policy approaches? Can the Obama approach be called “progressive,” or will it simply result in return to “regressive” states’ rights policies of previous years?