Authors comparison Stillman Public Administration and James L. Perry Handbook of Public administration

Federalism usually refers to the system of government of this country all national agencies are called federal agencies to distinguish it from state and local governmental agencies . To the uninitiated , this seems to be confusing , the complex interagency relations and the myriads of agencies to go through when one needs to call attention to social issues . Despite all of the complexity , federalism according to Laurence O 'Toole has survived the changing economic landscape , the developments in international relations , the awareness of the citizenry and the burgeoning social welfare costs . O 'Toole had

traced the changes in the management of intergovernmental relations with the emphasis on how it has proved to be a prevalent component of federalism . He also argued that the federal government had been the one big force in the country 's governmental structure that it had an all reaching influence , power and authority notwithstanding the huge funds that it could allocate at will O 'Toole clearly believed that managing intergovernmental agencies provided the best solution to the breadth and magnanimity of the US government . In this scenario , the state and local governments enjoyed a substantial amount of independence in terms of passing laws regulations , taxes and providing basic services . If the state had this jurisdiction , then how does the federal government figure into this set-up ? Robert Agranoff in his essay on intergovernmental processes claimed that the federal government pulls the strings . It has the ability to implement policies and laws that surpasses state policies like the Clean Air Act , it also has huge funds to award to states and local government units like counties , and municipalities to implement and sustain projects that promote the influence of the federal government . Agranoff also pointed out that most states and local governments benefit from this structure since they are able to provide for the needs of their constituents as well as building connections and relationships with federal agencies

To Agranoff managing intergovernmental processes is straightforward and is a mutual arrangement that satisfies the needs of both parties , it gives the federal government or agency the clout to dictate to the independently run states what to do and how to do it by providing incentives and awarding grants , while the recipients enjoy the incentives and it helps them produce outcomes that citizens expect and clamor for while maintaining their ability to govern their own According to Agranoff , the public administrators or officials actually have the most important role in intergovernmental management since they deal directly with the officials in the federal agencies and establishing political relationships with them would often result to more grants and projects . In the outset , Agranoff said that the concept of intergovernmental management is new and is counterintuitive to the present political system because public administration is geared towards single organizations , single jurisdictions and sole decision-making O 'Toole , writing on the same however says that intergovernmental management had been existing since the birth of federalism since it is the only way that a country as big as...