The 17th Amendment enabled the blurring of state boundaries by dissolving the federal separation of powers. When the 17th Amendment was passed at the start of the progressive era in 1913, it started to shift the United States from a dual federalist system to a cooperative federalist system. Progressive era political scientist, Charles Merriam, explained “Under our Federal system there must be a sharing of powers between the national, interstate, and state authorities.” Just like many other politicians and political scientist of the time, Merriam believed that centralization of controls was a way to solve any conflicts that the state governments and federal government had.
Prior to the 17th Amendment being passed, there were Senate election deadlocks. Some State Legislatures could not agree on who to send to the Senate, so they only had one Senator. At its worst, elections were deadlocked across 20 states, resulting in 20 vacant seats. The States saw this as a problem; they were already starting to pass State legislation to ensure that they would be able to get out of a deadlock so that they could have their equal representation in the Senate. State deadlocks are not federal issues. The Senate can still function and vote properly without all 100 members being voted in. States being in a deadlock is solely a state issue; therefore it should be solved on a state level. Because the deadlock problem was not solved on the level where it originated, the federal government assumed more control, which severed the vertical separation of powers in between the states and federal government.
The vertical separation of powers established by the Constitution ensured a dual federalist system of government. Thomas Jefferson explained that centralization must be resisted and that it “destroys liberty and the rights of man in every government which has existed under the sun.” A dual federalist system with provisions like the vertical separation of powers built into it ensure that the states do not simply administer federal laws and mandates, but instead are able to act as the ultimate check and balance against the federal government. Without the check and accountability that the states provide, a dual federalist system becomes morphed into a cooperative federalist system. In the 1935 Regional Factors for National Planning and Development, it it explained that “both legal and financial considerations, to say nothing of local policies, make it necessary for the Federal program to be supplemented by State action.” This is the exact ideology that the Founding Fathers warned against. Jefferson said, “Our government is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit, by consolidation first, and then corruption.”
Because the states were no longer represented in the federal government, the vertical separation of powers was almost completely severed. Jefferson wrote that the separation of powers must be maintained when he wrote, “I wish to preserve the line drawn by the federal Constitution between the [federal] and [state] governments as it stands at present, and to take every prudent means of preventing either from stepping over it.” The blurring of state and federal boundaries that the 17th Amendment provided was the start to government consolidation and a more progressive view on American politics.
Laine McKay Norton is a 17 year old senior in high school. Laine is a company member with the prestigious youth ballet, Ballet Etudes. She is the editor in chief of her school's scholarly journal and participates in debate club, and has owned a small business since she was 12 years old. Laine travels around the country with her father speaking at various conferences. Laine currently resides in Gilbert, Arizona.
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