well, i think the idea is generally that Americans like issues to be decided at a state level rather than federally due to general "small government" principles, like they can trust their state level government to be more specifically beholden to their interests. this is usually in a right wing context, but not always, like famously California has much stricter environmental regulations than the rest of the country.

[–] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Which begs the question: why did they join a union in the first place if they wanted decentralized government?

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 months ago

Federalism is a complex topic. Some things are done better In a central way, and some are done better distributed.

Uniform regulation of commerce and military protection is really efficient.

At the time, there was no practical way for one body to make meaningful policy to manage both new York and south Carolina at the same time.

You can basically look at what the EU is doing and that's why the states did it too, just starting with "shit we need money, a navy and soldiers" rather than "can we all just agree on food standards and currency?”