Time Essay: THE MARBLE-CAKE GOVERNMENT Washington's New Partnership with the States

TIME ESSAY

NOT long ago, Washington used to offer simple, straightforward directions to any state or city that received federal aid. The directions went something like this: "Take as directed. Do not shake. Do not stir. Swallow hard." The states were not very fond of the directions, but they wanted the funds that came with them—and they swallowed their objections. Now something new and interesting is happening to the often strained relations between the Federal Government and the nation's states and cities. To a degree that few people could have anticipated only a short time ago, Washington is actively seeking the help, cooperation and counsel of the states, the cities and a vast array of volunteer groups and private industries. It is forging new partnerships that have wide-ranging implications.

The effort goes by the name of creative federalism, a term suggested by New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller in his 1962 Godkin Lectures at Harvard and picked up by Lyndon Johnson in his "Great Society" speech at Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1964. Far from seeking a stronger role for the Federal Government—as it sometimes has been thought to do—creative federalism not only asks states and cities to do more on their own, but challenges the concept that governmental power is a one-level reservoir from which every cup drawn by Washington means a loss for someone else. Instead, as Max Ways wrote in FORTUNE, "creative federalism starts from the contrary belief that total power —private and public, individual and organizational—is expanding very rapidly."

It is expanding because the burdens of governing are growing too big and too complex for any branch of government to handle efficiently alone. There are dozens of areas, from housing to highways, that the states do not have the money to handle themselves, and hundreds more in which the Federal Government must take the initiative if anything is ever to be done. Though cries are still heard about the freedom-encroaching growth of government—most frequently from the extreme right wing—most Americans have come to accept the fact that big problems require big government. What they are apt to resent is the Federal Government's playing too pervasive and domineering a role in decisions that are better made at the state or local level. On the other hand, Washington is recognizing that many of its programs need local focus and effort to make them work efficiently. The result, in the best pragmatic tradition of American politics, is that Washington is busy changing the shape and context of its aid and influence.

Temptation Resisted