ABSTRACT
Mandates are the subject of much political, legal, and fiscal debate in the United States because of their number, penetration, and cost throughout the intergovernmental system. To understand mandates, it is first necessary to have a comprehensive classification of the different types that exist. Catherine Lovell and Charles Tobin have provided the following useful classification of the myriad mandates that exist in the US intergovernmental system. The first way to think about mandates is to consider the requirements that mandates impose, the method that is used to impose them, and the application of the mandates. Mandates impose constraints on governments. There are few defenders of mandates when they are said to impose regulatory and budgetary burdens on lower level governments. The strongest defense of some federal mandates is that they promote laudable national objectives. Civil rights, certain health care regulations, environmental mandates that are designed to monitor pollution, and constitutional guarantees for the incarcerated all require national enforcement.
