No politics are local: dilemmas of American federalism.

AuthorGaffney, Conor
PositionReport

In the United States this past spring, all eyes were on Wisconsin. In a race heralded as second in importance only to the 2012 presidential election, Republican governor Scott Walker defended his position as the state's chief executive in a rare recall election (1). The race was seen as a forecast for Obama's chances come November in crucial swing states like Wisconsin, and more importantly, as a showdown between the two new political ideologies competing for Americans' favour in the upheaval of the Great Recession: the free-market fundamentalism of the Tea Party and the various calls for economic justice of organised labour and Occupy Wall Street. The election also saw record-breaking spending from outside groups.

Wisconsin's recall election was a stage for high national politics, and also a study in how national politics and local political procedures have been reconfigured in a moment of national political reflection and in the wake of the expansion of corporate money into politics. A naive federalist model in the United States that devolves political power primarily into locally elected representatives and executives ineffectively distributes power when electoral institutions are under undue influence from a narrow few. Furthermore, the constriction of viable political positions in the electoral realm favours the Republican Party--which has demographically, ideologically, and financially homogenised since the 1960s--over the traditionally pluralistic Democratic Party. In this new situation, Democrats and their allies must turn to democratic institutions outside of the electoral realm, such as public schools and local administrative bodies, as potential sites for the development of independent local politics.

The second race for Wisconsin's governor

Only twice before in the nation's history have recall elections been called: in 1921, when a conservative faction of Republicans organised the recall of North Dakota governor Lynn Frazier over the issue of state ownership of a flour mill, and in 2003, when Californians recalled Gray Davis during the economic turbulence of the California electricity crisis and the dot-com bubble recession. In Wisconsin in 2010, Republican Scott Walker rode into office on the wave of Tea Party enthusiasm that had ousted incumbent Democrats and Republicans across the country. He promptly introduced an austerity bill to balance the state's budget with a radical provision quietly tucked in that stripped public sector unions of their right to collective bargaining.

Walker's attack on unions was an unexpected move that shocked both his base and the opposition, and precipitated one of the most visible and drawn-out political battles of the past two years. Immediately after Walker's bill was introduced, Democratic representatives fled Wisconsin to neighbouring Illinois to prevent the quorum needed to vote on the bill from being reached. Republicans ordered that they be pursued and arrested. Protestors descended on the capitol building and would remain for the next five months. At its height, 100,000 protestors--public employees, farmers, teachers, and private citizens--were in Madison. Egyptians in Tahrir Square, unions in Spain and Poland...

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