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382 Edyta Sokalskaa safeguard against undue concentration of governmental authority in thenation which might result in the abridgement of the rights of citizens or ingeneral policies harmful to a group of a large nation. Individual states mayserve as laboratories of political experimentation for innovations in governmentalpolicies. The states do not have to wait for the national governmentto formulate and implement a program to solve a problem since state canuse its own good judgment and sources in fashioning a remedy. Minoritiesconcentrated within one or more states are able to elect their members tostate and local government offices, and to influence national policies throughthe pressure asserted by their state and local government officials upon thenational legislature. The political decentralization of powers provides citizenswith additional opportunities to participate in the governance system.There are more appointed and elected offices in a federal system and most ofthese offices are located close to the residences of citizens. Supporters ofa federal system also claim that a federal system enhances confidence in andloyalty too 8 .On the other hand, some disadvantages of a federal system may beidentified. The federal system may be rigid if the power distribution can bechanged only by means of the formal constitutional amendment, a processwhich is often prolonged and difficult. The existence of concurrent powersexercised by the national government and the regional governments mayresult in an uneconomical overlapping of functional responsibilities and conflictsbetween the two levels of government. The problem of conflicts isespecially apparent in times of rapid economic and social change when jurisdictionalconflicts may delay or prevent effective action by either the nationalgovernment or regional governments or both. Concentration of authorityin one government as in a unitary state would result in greater efficiencyduring a period of rapid change. Serious problems may be also caused by thelack of uniformity in important functional areas (banking, highway safety)as the laws and regulations governing the areas may vary widely among theregional governments. Problems may be created by the failure of one or moreregional governments to recognize the public acts and records 9 .It should be underlined that two theories have been developed to explainthe nature of the governance system in the United States – dual federalismand cooperative federalism. Professor Edward S. Corwin of PrincetonUniversity in 1950 when defining dual federalism stated that “the nationalgovernment is one of enumerated powers only; also the purposes whichit may constitutionally promote are few; within their respective spheres8 J.F. Zimmerman, op.cit., p. 6. About political influences, economic impact and socialoutcomes of the federal system see also L.N. Gerston, op. cit., p. 14.9 Ibidem, p. 7. Compare disadvantages shown in: V. Gray, P. Eisinger, Politics in theAmerican States and Cities, Longman, New York 1997, p. 18–22.