ABSTRACT
In a more perfect world, perhaps, there would be a way for policymakers to implement a policy, observe its effects, and then rewind the clock, allowing a fine-tuned policy to be reimplemented at no cost or inconvenience to anyone. Unfortunately, such do-overs are possible only in children’s games and marriage annulments. But the American political system potentially offers the next best thing: a federal structure, in which the central government is supreme but the individual states and local governments still retain significant powers in many policy areas. A federal system permits policies to be tailored to local preferences and conditions, moving government closer to the people, and it allows thoughtful policy experimentation by states or local governments. As Justice Louis Brandeis wrote in a famous Supreme Court opinion 72 years ago, “It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country” (New State Ice v. Liebman 1932). Following are some examples of such experiments.
