(Originally published in Greater Democracy)

When the Federalist Papers were written in the early days of our country, the total population of the United States was less than four million people. Today, over half the States in the union are larger than that. The country has gotten much larger. However, when the Federalist Papers were written there was not the instantaneous communications that we have today. You could not call, fax or email your representative, and it was a long and arduous trip to get to the to nations capital. So, as the country has gotten much larger, it has also gotten much smaller at the same time. Do we need to move more power away from Washington because the States are that much bigger or should we move more power to Washington because it is now only a phone call away. What does this tell us about Federalism in the twenty-first century?

I’m not sure. I must admit, I’ve only scanned parts of the Federalist Papers, and have never studied them in school. My understanding of Federalism is limited to what I’ve picked up from various rants on various blogs and related sources. I’ve tended to think of Federalism as the domain of corporate libertarians who don’t what any sort of government oversight of their businesses, folks who want any sort of business ethics enforcement relegated to the least powerful government source.

Some of this comes from remarks I remember hearing Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of New York make at a conference on Risk management a couple years ago. Federalists who wanted to move enforcement out of the Federal government to the States hadn’t counted on people like Eliot Spitzer and he became the bogeyman to many Federalists.

It has seemed as if the same corporate libertarians are the folks that urged for moving class action suits away from the states back to the Federal Courts, not out of any commitment to federalism, but as a commitment to making it harder for people to hold corporations accountable.

Indeed, many of the actions of the Federal government seem to be moving away from the ideas of a small less controlling Federal government and further away from State’s Rights, and this seems to be being led by people that just a few years ago where calling for smaller Federal governments. What has changed? The party in power has changed. Perhaps Federalism can best be thought of as a grassroots populist tool for the opposition party.

Looking at Federalism that way, it is interesting to observe various grassroots activities on the State level. One of the positive lights that some Democrats put on the 2004 election is their gains in State Houses across the country and personally, I’ve been pushing hard to get more people involved in State politics.

Progressive Democrats from North Carolina used a test website that I set up for them to collaboratively draft and prioritize resolutions to the North Carolina Democratic Party. In a similar manner, Democracy for Massachusetts is using the web to coordinate efforts to amend the Massachusetts Democratic Party Platform.

I stumbled across this effort in part because of my role as BlogMaster for the DeStefano for Connecticut campaign. Mayor DeStefano is running as the most progressive and populist gubernatorial candidate in Connecticut. Because of this he is making extensive use of the Internet to get his message out. Friends of mine in Massachusetts invited me to the Massachusetts convention as an opportunity to meet with Deval Patrick. Patrick is being positioned by my friends as the most progressive and populist gubernatorial candidate in Massachusetts. I look forward to meeting him.

Meanwhile, campaign bloggers, such as those of us noted here, are talking amongst ourselves about how to be most effective in getting our candidates message out online.

A Federal Government does provide an important role in helping coordinate local actions. Through the sharing of information between progressives, whether they are working to change party platforms or to elect better Governors, the Internet is playing an increasingly important role in providing similar coordination. What might a new Internet based Federalism look like? Perhaps it is a bit early to tell, but it is exciting to be participating in its formation.