Introduction

Powers not granted to the Federal government, nor those prohibited to it by the states, are granted exclusively to the states or the people by the Tenth Amendment. Where one would hope that the federal government was collaborating to achieve complementary goals, there has been an immediate shift from cooperative federalism (more decentralized) to coercive federalism (more centralized) removing the interlocking management techniques granted by the Tenth Amendment. Ostensibly, there are overlapping management realms and techniques that the federal-state system could use to the advantage of policy making coherence—the extent to which a policy reflects all branches of government and the will of the people. Instead, the overlapping management has been sidetracked by a more centralized model of governance: one that favors top-down rather than collaborative policy making.

Due these new strains plaguing the federalist system, the 21st century has seen several changes to the power and scope of operations affecting both the states and the federal government. This paper will explore intergovernmental models in the realms of assistance programs, disaster response, and general services. These realms will highlight the greater implications of power shifting from cooperative federalism to coercive federalism. Centralization has led to a new breed of federal-to-state coercion, forcing the regular intergovernmental models to no longer apply; since, 10th amendment protections have been threatened by the attempts to coerce the states, in their place are new public management dynamics. Intragovernmental cooperation has escalated to a winner-take-all power struggle often in favor of the federal government. The powers not delegated by the constitution are now falling into the reigns of the federal government, making the 10th amendment null and void.