1. American Democracy Now, 3/e
Chapter 3: Federalism
American Democracy Now, 3/e

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Federalism
An Overview of the U.S. Federal System
A federal system has two constitutionally recognized levels of government, each with sovereignty—that is, ultimate governing authority, with no legal superior—over different policy matters and geographic areas.
The American colonists’ experience with a unitary system, and subsequently the early U.S. citizens’ life under a confederal system (1781–1788), led to the creation of the innovative federal system.
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Unitary System
Majority of world’s nations, including Great Britain, have unitary system
In a unitary system , the central government is sovereign.
The central government can also unilaterally take away any responsibilities it has delegated to the regional governments it creates and can even eliminate the regional governments.
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Confederal System
In a confederal system , several independent sovereign governments agree to cooperate on specified matters while each retains ultimate authority over all other governmental matters within its borders.
The cooperating sovereign governments delegate some responsibilities to a central governing body.
The sovereign governments retain ultimate authority.
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Federal System
The Constitution’s framers established dual sovereignty by detailing a new, sovereign national government for the United States and modifying the sovereignty of the existing state governments.
The national government has no legal superior on matters over which the Constitution gives it authority, and the state governments have no legal superior on the matters over which they are granted authority by the Constitution.
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6. What a federal system means for citizens
The majority of U.S. citizens live under the jurisdiction of at least five governments: national, state, county, municipal or township, and school district.
Each of these governments can impose responsibilities on the people living in its jurisdiction e.g. taxes.
Each government can also guarantee personal liberties and rights.
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Federalism
Where Do You Stand?
How satisfied are you with the state of education in the United States today?
a. Satisfied
b. Not satisfied
Source: “Slim Majority Dissatisfied with Education in the U.S.,” ed-Education-US.aspx.
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Federalism
Where Do You Stand?
Do you support or oppose a return to the military draft in the United States today?
a. Support the draft
b. Oppose the draft
Source: “Vast Majority of Americans Opposed to Reinstating Draft,”
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9. Three Governing Systems
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11. Constitutional Distribution of Authority
By distributing some authority to the national government and different authority to the state governments, the Constitution creates the dual sovereignty that defines the U.S. federal system.
To fulfill their responsibilities to their citizens, both the national and the state governments have the authority to engage in the functions inherent to all sovereign governments.
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12. Concurrent Sovereign Authority
To function, sovereign governments need the authority to make policy, raise money, establish courts to interpret policy when a conflict arises about its meaning, and implement policy.
In the U.S. federal system, we designate these inherent governing functions as the concurrent powers because the national and the state governments hold these powers jointly and each can use them at the same time.
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National Sovereignty
Article I of the Constitution enumerates (lists) the matters over which Congress holds the authority to make laws (enumerated powers).
The Constitution also gives Congress implied powers—that is, powers that are not explicitly described but may be interpreted to be necessary to fulfill the enumerated powers.
Congress specifically receives implied powers through the Constitution’s necessary and proper clause.
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The Supremacy Clause
Unless the Supreme Court finds a national law to be outside of the enumerated or implied powers, that law is constitutional and hence the supreme law of the land, as defined by the supremacy clause in Article VI of the Constitution.
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15. National Treaties with Indian Nations
Throughout U.S. history, the national government has signed treaties with Native American nations, which are legally viewed as sovereign foreign nations.
Today, the federal government recognizes more than 550 Indian tribes.
Even though Indian reservations lie within state borders, national treaties and national laws, not state or local laws, apply to the reservation populations and lands.
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State Sovereignty
Powers Delegated to States
The state powers enumerated in the Constitution give the states a distinct voice in the composition and priorities of the national government.
Powers Reserved to the States
10th Amendment reserved powers clause.
The states’ reserved powers to protect the health, safety, lives, and property of their citizens are referred to as their police powers.
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18. Enumerated Powers of National Government
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20. Constitutionally Delegated & Reserved State Powers
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The Supreme Court’s Interpretation of National versus State Sovereignty
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) established the use of the implied powers to expand the national government’s enumerated authority.
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22. The Power to Regulate Commerce
In Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), the Supreme Court established a broad definition of commerce: “all commercial intercourse—meaning all business dealings.”
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23. The Power to Provide for the General Welfare
In 1937, the Supreme Court had to decide: Was Social Security welfare for which Congress is delegated the authority to raise and spend money? Or was Social Security a matter for the state governments to address?
The Court found the national policy to be constitutional—a reasonable congressional interpretation, the justices wrote, of the enumerated and implied powers of the national government.
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24. State-to-State Obligations: Horizontal Federalism
In Article IV, the Constitution sets forth obligations that the states have to one another. Collectively, these state-to-state obligations and the relationships they mandate are forms of horizontal federalism.
Interstate compacts.
Extradition.
Privileges & Immunities.
Full faith and credit clause.
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25. The New Judicial Federalism
Political scientists use the phrase new judicial federalism to describe the practice whereby state judges base decisions regarding citizens’ legal rights and liberties on their state constitutions when those laws guarantee more than the minimum rights or liberties enumerated in the U.S. Constitution.
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27. Evolution of the Federal System
The federal system established by the Constitution has evolved from a simple system of dual federalism to a complex system of intergovernmental relations characterized by conflicted federalism.
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Dual Federalism
Dual Federalism refers to the relationship between the national and state governments, dominant between 1789 and 1932, whereby the two levels of government functioned independently of each other to address their distinct constitutional responsibilities.
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29. Cooperative Federalism
Cooperative federalism is the relationship between the national and state governments whereby the two levels of government work together to address domestic matters reserved to the states, driven by the policy priorities of the states.
This era of federalism began during the Depression.
Grants-in-aid —transfers of money from one level of government to another that need not be paid back (also known as intergovernmental transfers )—became a main mechanism of President Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.
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30. Centralized Federalism
By the time of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency (1963–1969), a new kind of federalism was replacing cooperative federalism.
In centralized federalism, directives in national legislation force state and local governments to implement a particular national policy.
Presidents since Richard Nixon (1969–1974) have fought against this centralizing tendency.
Devolution refers to the return of policy responsibilities to state and local governments.
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31. Conflicted Federalism
Conflicted federalism describes the current status of national-state relations that involve the conflicting elements of dual, cooperative, and centralized federalisms.
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Federalism
Where Do You Stand?
Are you for or against the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes?
a. For legalization
b. Against legalization
Source: “Americans Support Legalization of Marijuana for Medicinal Use,”
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Landmarks in the Evolution of Federalism: Key Constitutional Amendments
The Civil War and the Postwar Amendments
13th Amendment brought the legal end of slavery in every state.
14th Amendment extended the rights of citizenship to individuals who were previously enslaved, also placed certain limits and obligations on state governments.
The Sixteenth Amendment
Enhanced ability of national government to raise money.
The Seventeenth Amendment
Direct election of US senators.
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34. Further Evolutionary Landmarks: Grants-in-Aid
Today, federal grants-in-aid amount to close to 20 percent of federal annual spending, which covers about 30 percent of the annual spending by state and local governments.
Fiscal federalism refers to the relationship between the national, state, and local governments that grows out of the grants of money that the national government provides to state and local governments.
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Categorical Grants
Historically, the most common type of grant-in-aid has been the categorical formula grant —a grant of money from the federal government to state and local governments for a narrow purpose, as defined by the federal government.
Since the 1960s, the national government has also offered categorical project grants. State and local governments compete for these grants by proposing specific projectsthey wish to implement and what level of funding they need.
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Block Grants
Block grants refer to money granted by the national government to states or localities for broadly defined policy areas, with fewer strings than categorical grants, and in amounts based on complicated formulas
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37. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009
In February 2009, President Obama and the 111th Congress enacted ARRA.
The goal of the ARRA was to stimulate the nation’s economy, which was in the depths of what some have called the Great Recession.
ARRA included $499 billion in spending, $280 billion of which went to state and local governments through grants.
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38. State Attempts to Influence Grant-in-Aid Conditions
State and local governments have increasingly lobbied national lawmakers during the policy-making processes that create and reauthorize grants.
One goal of this intergovernmental lobbying is to limit the grant conditions—or at least to influence them to the states’ advantage.
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39. Federalism’s Continuing Evolution: Mandates
The Constitutional clauses most often questioned are:
the necessary and proper clause (Article I, Section 9)
the national supremacy clause (Article VI)
the general welfare clause (Article I, Section 8)
the regulation of interstate commerce clause (Article I, Section 8)
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40. Federalism’s Continuing Evolution: Mandates
National mandates are clauses in national laws, including grants-in-aid, that direct state and local governments to do something specified by the national government.
Also common is the federal government’s use of preemption. Preemption means that a national policy supersedes a state or local policy because it deals with an enumerated or implied national power.
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41. Intergovernmental Relations
To govern, a government must have the authority to formulate and approve a plan of action, to raise and spend money to finance the plan, and to hire workers to put the plan into action.
Political scientists label the collaborative efforts of two or more levels of government working to serve the public intergovernmental relations.
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Today’s Federalism
Federalist No. 45
Funded and unfunded mandates, national grants-in-aid, and preemption all foster interdependency and interconnectedness of national, state, and local governments—intergovernmental relations—that make it hard to distinguish national policy responsibilities from state and local policy responsibilities.
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