ESSAYS IN STATE AND FEDERAL POLITICS

Abstract

This project explores how state and national policy-makers interact with their constituencies in three separate essays focusing on different aspect of policy-making in the shadow of a federation. In the first essay, National Commerce, I explore how commercial desires

inspired and supported by the development of the railroad, influenced Republicans’ support for a strong national judiciary in the lead-up to and after the United States Civil War, culminating in the Jurisdiction and Removal Act of 1875. In the second essay, Outside Options,

I build on a model inspired by the first essay to explain how local policy-makers may come to support moderate policies even when demographic arguments would call for much more extreme positions. Focusing on the the household foreclosure market, I demonstrate how the presence of outside options can both shield minorities from the full effects of harmful policies and also reduce the potential benefits accruing to majorities as a result of those policies, thereby inducing moderation on the part of lawmakers. Finally, the third essay, Preempting Preemption, develops a model of policy-making in a federal system which explores how local jurisdictions might strategically choose local policies in order to induce the central government to either preempt or refrain from preempting local authority. I support this model with a case study of legislation governing genetically-modified products in the United States.