Decentralization

I believe Decentralization is an effective and important part of our political system.

According to Hetherington and Keefe page 32, it is much easier for candidates running on a subnational level to assimilate with the state’s ideologies. I think this alludes to the difficulties political parties may have on the national level. Because Decentralization has the power being held higher at state and local levels, it becomes more difficult to have a unified ideology among parties and thus discipline is lacking. I do however think this lack of discipline can be a good thing in terms of our Nation’s heterogeneity.

Decentralization forces candidates and political parties to cater at a more local level, and those smaller levels are made up of different people, ethnicities, ideologies etc, steering clear of an overall generalization. This in turn works in favor of the local representatives. Without this dispersing of power, subnational government leaders would have little weight in decision-making and would hold no value. This would create a lack of efficacy among voters, knowing that one national leader could not possibly take care of their needs, voting a partisanship is pointless.

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/03/mccain_plans_decentralized_cam.php . This article describes McCain’s plan of Decentralized campaigning. This may have been effective had the content of his campaigning been different.

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/546# . This article is an example of Obama’s use of Decentralization in his political campaign and its effectiveness. He created a hierarchal system of campaigning allowing different smaller teams to take charge of different districts. This sacrifice of centralized control may have played a large role in the election outcome, which clearly was a victory on his end.

I think as of right now the Republican Party is looking for someone to take control. Right now the party is can only focus on local reps. They had a pretty serious defeat and most of the nation is rallying in hope behind the new president, who is in clear control of the Democratic Party. (Yes, this is coming from a conservative-libertarian—myself).If things move forward in a successful manner, I think party strength should be less important. I am sure the Republicans are waiting for Obama to fail so they can rally behind a new leader and take their attempt at a lead; and if he does fail, by all means go for it.