Federalism
Federalism : "?the nation's federalist form of government lies at the root of many of the challenges that make providing homeland security so difficult, as the federal government lacks authority over state governors or even locally elected mayors. The U.S. Constitution grants the states and territories a wide range of sovereign rights and responsibilities, which are taken very seriously by elected officials at the state and local levels. For all the clamor in the wake of Hurricane Katrina for someone, anyone, to be in charge, it is not possible to achieve "unity of command" in the military sense of the term during a domestic catastrophe unless the American public agrees to rewrite the Constitution. No governor or city mayor-elected by constituents and entrusted with the responsibility of developing a plan at the state or local level to handle an emergency-will stand idly by and let a federal official impose, from outside, a plan created in Washington. Preventing, protecting against, preparing for, and responding to catastrophes inside the United States requires a national approach based fundamentally on coordination and cooperation horizontally between different types of organizations such as governments, the private sector, nonprofit organizations, and individuals and vertically between the federal, state, and local levels of government". (Wormuth, Managing the Next Catastrophe, 2008, 6)
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