Federalism - July 01, 2022 Windham Independent

Decentralized Government: Federalism increases efficiency and accountability

Government powers should be exercised by the lowest level of government possible, since any individual has more influence over their town government than over the county or state government… and ZERO influence over the federal government. Giving the most power and funds to the least accountable part of our government is contrary to our best interest and leads to corruption and countless abuses.

Policy/legislation should be driven by facts and reason, and both support the assertion above. In regards to research, please read [Sow, Moussé and Razafimahefa, Ivohasina Fizara, Fiscal Decentralization and the Efficiency of Public Service Delivery (March 2015). IMF Working Paper No. 15/59, https://ssrn.com/abstract=2594142 ] 

That International Monetary Fund study shows that a policy of fiscal decentralization will improve government performance as long as local governments are autonomous and have strong accountability and governance standards and the decentralization of expenditure is accompanied by sufficient decentralization of revenue.

The authors suggest that explanations include local governments better understanding their constituents and can thus make better decisions on how to satisfy their citizens’ needs. Local governments have better accountability, which leads to productive efficiency. The competition between many local governments results in improvements to public services and allows their citizens to see which policies work and which don’t, and lastly, fiscal decentralization makes it much harder for lobbying by interest groups to sway the government’s decisions.

Or one could just compare the US with Switzerland (both are well off countries with a federal form of  government).  In 2011, the total Swiss government costs were about 33 percent of the Gross Domestic (GDP) in Switzerland, while the total US government costs were around 41 percent of the GDP. The Swiss federal national government only controls about one-third of the country’s total government spending, versus the US federal government controlling about two thirds of the total government spending.

The higher cost of the US government is caused by the excessive size and power of our federal government - the further from the people the government is, the less accountable and more corrupt and wasteful it becomes. The Swiss federalist approach of having the lower forms of government control most of the country’s government expenses works much better than the US’s opposite approach of letting the federal government control most government expenditures.

Of course, a state representative cannot do much about the federal government… but they can apply the same principles and allow individuals as much freedom of choice as possible, then only allow the state to use powers and funds that cannot be delegated to the county or town governments. 

If elected, I will do my best to make our government more cost effective and more accountable by increasing your individual freedom to choose and by helping towns and counties get back to making their own decisions with less interference from the state. The more power and money stays closer to the people, the better off we will all be.

Please don’t hesitate to text or call me at (617) 755 2590 or email me at dpmwindham@gmail.com if you need more information to help you decide if I deserve your support on September 13th.

Daniel Popovici-Muller

Republican Candidate for State Representative