Is state government an effective form of government Essay

Is state government an effective form of government - Essay Example This is a step forward in the process of decentralization out of federal power and of achieving efficiency by the state governments. Dr. Weiher stated that there are four general purposes of a written Constitution: "(1) Create a Form of Government; (2) Limit Governmental Power; (3) Define Who is a Citizen; and (4) Identify society's central values" (Weiher, 2002). This last point has to be emphasized. The values of any given society change frequently from territory to territory. People from different states have very different sets of values and a written Constitution is a reflection of the diversity of values among citizens of different states. For example, people from Utah have in common their unique religious beliefs. The same can be said of other people from other states. The federal government provides the unity within the diversity, and each state is a symbolic pluralistic unit in the spectrum of all the states bound together under the U.S. Constitution. The Wikipedia points out that "the most obvious advantage of a codified constitution is the coherent and easily understood body of rules. A codified constitution at the least is simple to read, being a single document.