Seventeen individuals from around the country met in BYU-Hawaii's television studio on Friday, March 13, 2009, to discuss issues that have the potential to change the world's outlook on federalism and intergovernmental relations. Troy Smith, Brigham Young University Hawaii associate professor of political science, was approached by the Forum of Federations to coordinate one of 13 round table discussions planned to happen globally.
"What they [the Forum of Federations] have done is they've had 13 different dialogues going on in 13 different countries, so this was the USA dialogue," said Smith. "In November the coordinators for each country's dialogues will get together in India, have a discussion on what they've learned, and a book will come out with a chapter from each country."
Among the 17 members of Smith's round table were members of local, state, and national governments, including Sandra Sagasi, a cabinet member of Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann's, former Hawaii House of Representativesmember Colleen Meyer and Former U.S. House of Representatives member Ed Case. Other members of the round table included Pacific Business News journalist Chad Blair, public information officer John Cummings, and Dean of Seton Hall University's College of Arts and Sciences Joseph Marbach. The conference focused on relations between different levels of government.
"National, state and local governments coordinate and collaborate to get things done, There's a lot of concern about this. For example, the Barack Obama stimulus package has money from the national government, but implementation is carried out by state and local governments," said Smith. "It's important that there is good coordination and collaboration between levels of government. (We were) trying to understand what works and what doesn't work and why in intergovernmental relations."
Another discussion topic of the conference was on the growth of nationalization. One participant of the conference remarked, "My constituents don't care which level of government is responsible for something. All they know is there is a problem and they want it solved."
This mentality leads to power being taken from the local and state governments, where people can get involved, and puts power at the national level. The problem with national policies is that they generally don't account for the diversity of America and the need for its diverse policies, said Smith.
Other topics discussed at the event included the idea that the government is driven by short -term interest principles and the need for citizens to take an interest in local and state government.
"One of the lessons that came out of the event was that those who know the system, who monitor the system and participate in the system could have a significant influence on the system. The message is that you either participate and influence it the way you want it to go, or it will move along without you and do things you may not like," said Smith.
--Photo by Kawika Wise