Kansas Politics and Government: The Clash of Political Cultures

7. State and Local Governments in a Federal Structure

chapter seven State and Local Governments in a Federal Structure Kansas governments operate within a federal structure in which contending cultural forces loom large. The U.S. Constitution and ever-broadening interpretations of national authority introduce a degree of hierarchy into the federal structure. Further, the authoritative acts of presidents, congresses, and federal courts, as well as national spending capacity, enforce a semblance of order and equality in this structure and occasionally diminish the sovereignty of Kansas governments. a preference for liberty, however, profoundly restrains direct national intervention and limits the tools of governance available for the exercise of national authority. Liberty diffuses political power and nurtures home rule, thus creating competition, conflict, and diversity across levels of government and among governments. in U.S. federalism raw coercion rarely succeeds. Conflicts are most often resolved and cooperation secured through negotiated agreements. The age of individualism laid down fertile soil for local control in the body politic of Kansas, and Kansans have fashioned a multitude of governments in response to their perceived needs. indeed, at the dawn of the twentieth century Kansans could proudly proclaim that roughly twelve thousand local bodies were engaged in delivering crucial public services throughout the state, one government on average for every 125 Kansans.1 as Kansas entered the twenty-first century nearly four thousand local governments, more than found in all but four other states—California, illinois, Pennsylvania , and Texas—were taxing and spending in behalf of their respective constituencies. Today, Kansans periodically elect over sixteen thousand of their neighbors to govern 105 counties, 1,299 townships, 627 cities, 1,533 special districts, and 324 school and community college districts. a culturally restricted state government in Kansas became a more serious partner in federalism after the turn of the twentieth century. Progressive State and Local Governments in a Federal Structure 151 activists created new state agencies and expanded existing state authority, and state government began to exert a modest degree of order over relations between state and local governments. National spending through grants-inaid further augmented state authority and in time prodded state government into becoming a cooperative partner in nation-state relations and into becoming more actively engaged in state-local relations. Today, state officials in dozens of state agencies administer hundreds of federal grants as well as a number of major state funds, which provide direct state service and community -based services throughout the state. Recent actions, including the diffusion of service delivery to a wide array of “third-party” governments, have moderated the nationalizing trends of grants-in-aid. at present Kansas state officials often mediate this muddle of U.S. federalism by conducting state-nation and state-local diplomacy and by negotiating in an environment of contending cultural forces of liberty, order, and equality. Hierarchic forces constantly work at imposing more order upon and equality into this muddle, but Kansans instinctively value their liberty that nourishes home rule and local control. This chapter reviews the evolution and current state of Kansas governments in the federal structure. nation-state-local context Kansans took their first steps toward sovereignty under national supervision as provided in the Kansas-Nebraska act of 1854. This congressional act provided for popular sovereignty in determining the slavery question and for administration of the territory through executive and judicial officers appointed with senate confirmation by the U.S. president. Legislative powers in the territory resided in a two-chamber legislative body of Kansans once elections were organized. Volatile territorial politics played out against the contentious and violent backdrop of what the nation would come to know as Bleeding Kansas. Ten territorial governors would come and go in less than seven years; five would be fired. Three early attempts at drafting a constitution would fail. on a fourth try Kansans took their first critical step toward statehood by drafting a state constitution at the Wyandotte convention of 1859. The Wyandotte Constitution reflected cultural preferences for individual liberty and limited government that would fundamentally shape the framework of Kansas governments, both near term and well into the state’s future. Frontier Kansas was in the forefront of national development: fifty million acres would be opened to settlement, railroads would be constructed, and new communities would be organized. But Kansas state government would be severely handicapped from direct engagement in that development. Two 152 State and Local Governments in a Federal Structure constitutional provisions—a cap on state debt of...