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From New Federalism to Devolution: Twenty-Five Years of Intergovernmental Reform. By Timothy Conlan. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1998. 374p. $49.95 cloth, $19.95 paper.
Although Bob Dole's efforts to extol the virtues of the Tenth Amendment in the 1996 presidential election fell upon deaf ears, Timothy Conlan reminds us that federalism has been a hallmark of Republican policy initiatives over the last twentyfive years. From New Federalism to Devolution describes the intergovernmental reform initiatives of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and the 104th Congress. Its goal is to provide more than just a history of federalism reform over the last quarter century. Conlan argues that a focus on Republican reform agendas can shed light on the evolution of conservative ideology and the broader changes in American politics. He provides valuable insights into the American political process, although the discussion of reform initiatives in the 1990s is not as strong as the analysis of federalism reform under Nixon and Reagan.
The nine chapters covering the Nixon and Reagan years are virtually identical to the chapters in Conlan's earlier work (New Federalism, 1988), but From New Federalism to Devolution is more than just old wine in a new bottle. Conlan has added a new introductory chapter as well as chapters on the Bush and early Clinton years, federalism in the 104th Congress, the saga of mandates and welfare reform, and the future of federalism. The author notes that federalism reform under Nixon, Reagan, and the 104th Congress was launched during an era of divided party government as a response to perceived policy failures of the past, with a focus on decentralization and block grants.
In the analysis of Nixon's intergovernmental reform initiatives, Conlan observes that "neither Congress nor the broader political system of the 1970s was prepared to deal coherently with the complex, comprehensive reform strategy the president proposed" (p. 35). Conlan details...