Federalism - AP Government and Politics

Federalism divides power between national and state levels of government, with national government supreme. A confederation divides power between state and national with the states as supreme. A unitary system has just one level of government.

A Federal system of government is defined as one where the power is shared between the national government and the regional governments (in the case of America, the regional governments are the states).

The Full Faith and Credit Clause established that all states must legally respect the laws, decisions, and court rulings of any other state. It appears in Section 1 of the United States Constitution.

Concurrent powers, as opposed to reserved powers, are powers shared equally by the Federal and State governments. They include the ability to levy taxes; the construction and maintenance of roads; the power to establish lower courts; the maintenance of law and order; and the ability to provide for social welfare. They do not, however, include the regulation of interstate trade, which is a power specifically prescribed to Congress by the Commerce Clause.

The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions were written, secretly, by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1798 and 1799. They argued that states had the right to deem Federal laws unconstitutional and, when having done so, declare them nullified.

Article 4 of the Constitution focuses on defining the power of the states within the federal system of government that prevails in the United States. It also establishes the relationship between the states and the federal government.

New Federalism is the process of devolving some powers back to the states to reduce the overwhelming power of the Federal government. It is closely associated with Richard Nixon (as well as Reagan and George H.W. Bush, who continued it), who initiated New Federalism by issuing Block Grants to the states and giving them greater license to freely spend government money to resolve social issues.

All of these are powers which are reserved for the states in the Constitution, except the ability to coin and print money. It would be quite illogical, and chaotic, to allow each state to coin and print its own money, as there would be no central currency. This condition existed under the Articles of Confederation and was predictably detrimental to economic growth.

Drafted by the 2nd Continental Congress and in 1776, the Articles of Confederation were ratified in 1781. It was the first form of government that governed the United States throughout the Revolutionary War.

"Federalism" is a system of government where power is divided between a national/central government and subunits/states. The Founders believed in separation of power and limiting central authority, so dividing power between the Federal government and states was another check on power.

The Founders wanted the states to keep their local traditions and governance. Each locality would have different needs and problems. Federalism allows the different states to implement and experiment with policies that suit their localities. If successful, they can serve as models for other states or for the nation as a whole.

Article VI of the constitution contains what is known as the Supremacy Clause: the Constitution, acts of Congress, and treaties made are the supreme law of the land. Thus establishing the Federal government as supreme over states.

The Founders could not foresee every possible issue or problem that could arise. As a concession to some that feared overreaching Federal power, the tenth amendment was drafted as a safeguard to states and a further check on Federal power.

McColloch v Maryland in 1819 was the first major court case dealing with interpretation of Federal and State Power. The issue in this case was whether the Federal Government had the power to create a national bank. The constitution does not explicitly grant that power, but the court ruled that because of the Necessary and Proper Clause, the Federal government has implied powers that go beyond those explicitly stated.

Related to the struggle between the Federal Government and State Governments over the issue of slavery and southern states fearing a federal ban, states adopted a policy of nullification. It was an assertion of state's rights to nullify federal law they deemed harmful to their sovereignty.

Congress under the Articles of Confederation could do all of these things. That said, those were about the extent of Congress’ power. Congress, for example, could not levy taxes on the states. The states were supposed to pay an amount based off of the amount of land in each individual states, but Congress was forced to ask for the money—it had no way of enforcing that obligation. Unsurprisingly, the states rarely paid, and when they did pay, it was almost never in full. This, of course, left a chronically un\[der\]funded Congress—arguably one of the more important reasons that led to the dismantling of the Articles of Confederation.

Among the other important powers that Congress did not have: Congress could not regulate interstate or foreign commerce. Additionally, the somewhat astronomical debts from the Revolutionary War were becoming harder and harder for Congress (who had no way to get money) to pay.

Our system of government is fairly unusual; as a federal system, it combines elements of a confederation, where the lower level of government (the states, for example) has the majority of the power, and a unitary system of government, where the national level of government has all of the power. It, much like the constitution itself, is an amalgam—the founders would likely say that it has the best of both elements of government.

Interestingly, our founders had the distinct benefit of living under both a confederation AND a unitary system prior to creating our federal government. The US was a confederation under the AoC and a unitary system under British rule. Thus we see elements of both—states retaining power from the central government, and the central government having power over the states.

This should be a fairly straightforward question. Under the constitution, only the states and the federal governments are recognized levels of governments. That doesn’t mean that local governments don’t exist (clearly, they do), it just means that they don’t have an independent constitutional basis for existence. In other words, they rely upon the states for their existence, and are subject to the whim of the states. A more succinct way of putting it is that the local governments function as administrative arms of the state governments.

The states, on the other hand, exist co-dependently with the federal government. They each are in a position to exert some leverage over the other.

Dual federalism is the correct answer, although this question is slightly misleading. It is much easier to envision dual and shared federalism as a continuum rather than strict alternatives. In other words, our government relations have never been one OR the other; it was mostly dual and now it is mostly shared. There have always been elements of both present.

Dual federalism is the idea that the federal government and the state governments preside over mutually exclusive spheres of sovereignty. This is a somewhat wordy way of saying that each level of government had their own responsibilities upon which the other could not intrude.

Shared federalism is the more accurate way to depict our nation-state relations currently. Shared federalism is the idea that, essentially, both the national government and the state governments work in concert to supply services to the public.