Unleashing a Perpendicular Nation: Five Ways to Transform the Federal-to-Local Relationship in the Biden Administration

Source: The New Localism Published: December 9th, 2020

Last month we wrote that local economic stakeholders could not afford to wait for certainty about the federal balance of power before organizing their plans for recovery. We proposed a five-part roadmap to help them prepare in light of the uncertain prospect of federal stimulus. Today we examine how to advance New Localism generally, and the relationship between the federal government and American cities and metros specifically, in the Biden Administration.

Our thesis is straightforward: governing effectively to build back better from our current domestic crises will require the Biden Administration to utilize the full energy of American cities and metros (irrespective of who controls the Senate).

For many reasons, this is much easier said than done.

A Perpendicular Problem: different federal and local organizing principles
Chief among the difficulties that the Biden Administration will face in fully harnessing American metros are the radically different organizing principles of the local and the federal. Metros of all sizes are organized around a horizontal and networked approach to problem solving, while the federal government is organized around a vertical and siloed approach. These approaches are, in a sense, perpendicular to each other.

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Photo by Caleb Perez on Unsplash