Many people assert that government regulation is the key to preventing powerful corporate interests from gaining and maintaining monopoly power. However, when regulation occurs at the federal level, corporate lobbyists can easily influence regulations in a way that stifles competition. How can a return to federalism (i.e. empowering the states by limiting the legislative and regulatory power of the federal government) make it more difficult for powerful corporations to exert monopoly power?
A return in federalism can make it more difficult for powerful corporations to exert monopoly power because the power would be with the states. So for example, if the government wants to pass legislation that may be questionable, the states would also get to have a say on whether it gets passed or not. A monopoly is pretty much a single entity that sells something, and if we only had one person that sold things in our country, there wouldn't be much economic growth. Without economic freedoms, we don't have political freedoms. That is something that Dr. Powell mentioned when he was discussing socialism. Due to federalism, things like this scenario can't happen in the United States. Of course, there are big corporations that have become corrupt, but there are many entrepreneurs in America. Federalism ties into the 10th amendment to the United States constitution, because it means that powers not specifically in the constitution for the government, goes to the states. I am glad that we don't have the government strictly passing every piece of legislation that comes through, that way, we can have our voices expressed through each state. Once again, if there was a monopoly in this country, we wouldn't be economically prosperous. Federalism allows for prosperity because it wouldn't allow big corporations to call every single shot.
