Wonder

Research Outline

Prepared for Hunter | Delivered January 27, 2020

States' Rights

Goals

To obtain an in-depth understanding of some of the best modern political thinking regarding States' Rights. Specifically, the research should highlight some of the arguments for giving more law-making ability to states against the central government. 

Early Findings

Political thinking and school of thought vary on the need for states to imbibe more law-making ability against the central government. Below are some of our findings: 
The issue of States' Rights often arises when the states and the central government do not agree on a particular subject. In modern times, the fight for States' Rights has mostly been championed by Democrats and Democrat-led states. 
One of the most common arguments for enhancing States' Rights is based on the fact that the US Constitution limited the powers of the federal government to 17 areas and assigned all other powers to the state governments. 
This school of thought proposes that the Founders in their wisdom "recognized the importance of small government close to the governed." State governments are believed to be closer to the people they serve, which leads to more accountability and more efficient use of public funding. The proponents of this argument claim that individual uniqueness and demographics of each state required their state sovereignty to be protected. 