Chapter Three Texas in the Federal System

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3-2 Organizing Governments Federalism is just one way of organizing different levels of governments. These next slides will illustrate the basic ways.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3-3 Unitary In this form, a central government essentially runs the country. Central Government All Power Local Government No Power Local Government No Power

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3-4 Unitary (Cont’d) The writers of the Articles of Confederation had some experience with monarchies, and did not want that much centralized power. So their first effort at creating a new government was to utilize a more decentralized structure, reflecting their own ideas of government.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3-5 Confederation In this form, all the power resides in local governments, such as states. Central Government No Power Local Government All Power Local Government All Power

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3-6 Confederation (Cont’d) The states had all the power—federal government only did what the states wanted. This didn’t work out since there were debts to pay, and the states had their own ideas of how to run things. So a compromise was reached between the two extremes…

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3-7 Federal System In this form, each level has some power. Central Government Some Power Local Government Some Power Local Government Some Power

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3-8 Federal System (Cont’d) With each level of government having some power, they are better able to take care of problems they may experience. Different states can then solve their unique problems in different ways. States can also turn to the federal government for help in solving certain problems, like those that affect several states, for example.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3-9 Other “Federalisms…” There are several ways to look at how federalism is set up and how it works. These next slides will illustrate the two basic ways that federalism has existed in this country.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Dual Federalism Dual Federalism existed from the beginning of the country to the 1930s. Each level of government basically kept to itself. Federal Government State Governments

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Dual Federalism (Cont’d) The federal government had certain responsibilities: International Trade National Defense, etc. States had their own responsibilities: Voting, elections, education Social policies: poverty, health, unemployment, etc.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Cooperative Federalism Due to the Great Depression and other factors, states turned to the federal government for help. So the federal government provided money to fund new policies that the states carried out. Now the states and the federal government work together in many policy areas.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Cooperative Federalism (Cont’d) From the 1930s on, both federal and state governments have worked together on many policy areas. Federal Government State Governments