President Lyndon Johnson set out to expand on the New Deal by creating what he called the Great Society. The Great Society was a set of programs designed to end poverty, eliminate racial injustice, and improve the environment.
Like Roosevelt, Johnson looked to state and local governments to carry out many of his new programs. As during the New Deal, the federal government provided funding in the form of grants. But unlike earlier grants-in-aid, Great Society grants often came with strict regulations as to how the money could be spent. Johnson called his partnership with state and local governments creative federalism. Political scientists, however, prefer the more descriptive term regulated federalism.
State and local governments were not happy about the federal regulations that came with the money. They were even less happy about the rapid growth of unfunded mandates that began in the 1960's. The national government felt that they were fixing the states problems without imposing taxes.
unfunded mandates: programs and regulations imposed on state and local governments by Congress without adequate funding.