Intergovernmental Relations Flashcards
7 cards from real CPM practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Intergovernmental Relations flashcards as text
The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article VI) establishes that:
Answer: Federal law is the 'supreme law of the land,' superseding conflicting state law
The Supremacy Clause makes the U.S. Constitution, federal statutes, and treaties the supreme law of the land, requiring state judges to follow federal law even when state law conflicts.
Which formula grant program, created in 1972 and later discontinued, distributed federal revenue to states and localities with few strings attached?
Answer: General Revenue Sharing
General Revenue Sharing (1972–1986) provided federal funds to states and localities based on population, tax effort, and income with minimal programmatic conditions.
A city manager is negotiating a service delivery agreement with a neighboring city to share fire protection services. This arrangement is best described as:
Answer: A joint powers agreement or interlocal agreement
Interlocal (joint powers) agreements allow local governments to cooperate on service delivery, pool resources, and share costs without creating new governmental entities.
The term 'picket fence federalism' describes a system where:
Answer: Vertical alliances of program specialists at federal, state, and local levels dominate policy within functional areas
Picket fence federalism, coined by Terry Sanford, describes how specialists (the horizontal rails) in specific policy areas link federal, state, and local bureaucracies (the vertical pickets), often bypassing generalist elected officials.
Under the Tenth Amendment, powers not delegated to the federal government nor prohibited to the states are:
Answer: Reserved to the states or the people
The Tenth Amendment reserves to states and the people all powers not granted to the federal government, forming the constitutional basis for states' rights arguments.
Which of the following best describes 'devolution' in the context of American federalism?
Answer: The transfer of program authority and responsibility from the federal government to states and localities
Devolution refers to shifting policy authority, administrative responsibility, and sometimes fiscal resources from the national to subnational levels of government.
A state imposes stricter environmental regulations than federal standards allow. Under which circumstance is this permissible?
Answer: When the federal statute expressly permits states to exceed the federal minimum standard
Many federal environmental statutes (e.g., the Clean Air Act) explicitly allow states to adopt standards more stringent than the federal floor, making state action permissible when the law provides for it.