Federal, State Laws And Economic Development  
2 
 
“Positive States” and Impact on Economy 
Positive states, according to Lehne, have constantly been on the rise due to the focus 
and attention given by the government towards economy, growth and development. Positive 
States is used by Lehne to illustrate the improved economic status, growth and development in 
the United States due to a number of factors such as changes in trade laws, immigration and 
development agenda by the federal government.  
Positive states were created in order to improve tax rates, have control over the business 
cycle, and provide businesses with the framework in which they can operate despite the market 
decisions that drive businesses. They were also created in order to enable the government be 
able to predict the ever fluctuating and recurring economy levels since they can only influence 
but not affect the business cycle. The business cycle is in five stages of Peak, Recession, 
Growth, Recovery and Trough.  
The positive states also were created majorly to enable reduce the conflict between 
businesses and the government. The conflict often arises over equality-efficiency trade off with 
the  government  pursuing  equality  and  fairness  while  businesses  pursuing  pure  economic 
reasons. 
Political rhetoric has been competing over the years with business over dominance and 
the two have been switching positions depending on the economic level of the United States. 
According to Lehne, the political rhetoric is currently down as business is dominating. Lehne 
quotes The New York Times (2013) that before the Constitutional revolution, the US Supreme 
Court had most of its operations pro-business. Immigrants were considered capable of working 
better during the time when political rhetoric took dominance and unskilled workers crossing 
the borders illegally were focused on.   
The Positive States gives a boost on the economy in different ways. The government 
enables  businesses  and  markets  operate  efficiently  by  providing  frameworks  resources  to