Quite a rare system for governing, Federalism is a way of organizing a nation so that two or more levels of government have formal authority over the same land and people. Today only 11 out of 190 countries in the world have a federal system. There are three systems of government: unitary, confederate, and federal. Federal governing shares powers within state, local, and national. In unitary governing, all power rests with the central government. Confederate governing, a vast majority of power rests with the state government. With the exception of the United Nations, confederates really don’t exist much anymore. Back in the early 1770’s, the United States was a confederate. The Articles of Confederation transformed the US into a confederate, temporarily. If a confederate didn’t work with thirteen states, it would definitely not work out with fifty. Thankfully, officials recognized the immense problems that came with the Articles of Confederation and thus created the Constitution and organizing democracy in the United States.
The United States, however (along with most of the other ‘federal’ governments), is not a complete federal government. The United States is primarily unitary, but have a federal traits. We are federal by means of state government contributing some power to central and national government, but the national government is mainly in control. Also, citizens vote for state and national officials, which is a federal aspect. All the set standards of how a federal government is run is also known as intergovernmental relations, which refers to interactions among national, state, and local government.
Federalism in America is important because it decentralizes politics as a whole. It makes it so that not one branch, party, or position, is in complete power. For example, the citizens vote for senate and house of representatives, who then vote for electoral college, who then vote for president, and when the president is elected he cannot make any national decision without the approval of either the house of representatives or the senate. Because there’s more political positions and opportunity due to more layers of government, people’s involvement has a greater likelihood of expanding. Federalism also leads way to a decentralizes in American policies. Some laws only national government has the power to approve or decline, but in return more minor laws state government has the power to approve or decline also. States deal more with public policies dealing with social, family, and moral issues, whereas the national government bases its rulings off the Constitution.
Back to the times of the Constitutional Convention, the talk of how to distribute the power arose. Which laws will the central national government have? Which will the state have? With this in mind, officials sat down and figured out which powers were and were not granted to any government by the constitution. Now with a general foundation laid, delegates often referred to the supremacy clause, in that the constitution is above state’s laws. Any powers not given to national government, were reserved for the state or the people as noted in the Tenth Amendment. State’s have the power over the national government to create laws such as speed limit and minimum wage whereas national government has the power above the states to create laws like drinking age and voting age. In article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, it states enumerated powers, or powers that are listed in the Constitution but are shared with the national government.. Also in Article I is the implied powers, or the powers that go beyond the Constitution and are given directly to the national government. Since in the Constitution it speaks absolutely nothing about such laws like minimum wage, drinking, abortion, driving, etc. Article I, Section 8 (also known as the elastic clause) of the Constitution states that any “necessary and proper” laws shall be created, which has the potential to get out of hand.
The Civil War was not just a war of struggling slavery, but a war to prove the separation and difference between the states and national government. After the conclusion of the war, Abraham Lincoln promised an amendment freeing the slaves, and that’s what happened. Unfortunantly almost 100 years later, segregation once again got the best of America and the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, where the Supreme Court deemed segregation as unconstitutional and slowly, but surely things went to normal. Shortly after the case blacks were given the right to vote, and even in present days, all blacks are treated as equal as ever.
It’s given that the state’s and national government have different powers, but even between states they must share certain laws. One for example is the full faith and credit law where each state must recognize official documents and grant them no matter which state from. This works on all official documents: driver’s license, birth certificate, marriage certificate, care insurance, etc. The only notable controversial item would be same-sex marriage. Thinning itself to a more widespread accepted rule, full faith and credit along with the Defense of Marriage Act, same-sex married people now have almost equal rights as those of heterosexual couples.
Extradition is another obligation to each state, where criminals must to surrender to the crime in the state of the crime in accordance to that particular state’s laws. Another state obligation is that of privileges and immunities. Though it seems to be still a work in progress, privileges and immunities attempts to create peace and equality within each state and alien citizens. Certain things like sales tax and police protection exemplify this rule, but other things like non-citizen elections and out-of-state tuition still yet to reach an agreeable level.
A democracy is government by the people FOR the people and in this case federalism provides vast opportunities for involvement, which leads to more people which is exactly what a democracy should be. Central government and state government run hand in hand, but at the same time they are quite different. State government breeds off of central government and after time most work their way up, and some power is shared, whereas in some scenarios central government has ABSOLUTELY no say-so or power on a state’s decision and reasoning. Government in America is always constantly changing, and though uniformity is technically possible, it’s not necessarily feasible and realistic. Take into consideration how different life was fifty years ago, or twenty years ago, or even five years ago. With that in mind, many people are set at ease that every decision has the chance (slight or not) to be overturned.
