Federalism

Federalism is a political system where power is divided between a central government and sub-national governments. In the U.S. these sub-national governments are the states. Both the national government and state government receive their power from popular sovereignty, (popular sovereignty referring to a rule by the people ), which is expressed in the Constitution. Also, both have the power to tax, regulate, and provide benefits to the people. In order for a country to qualify as having a federal system of government they have to have written in their constitution a division of power between the sub-national and the governments.

There are also different types of federalism. Nation-centered federalism, where people see the national government as the highest power in the national-state government relationship. State-centered federalism, where the states are the highest power in the national-state government relationship . Duel federalism, where people interpret the Constitution as having the national government and state government each having separate powers and supreme in their own area but are not dominant over each other. Lastly, there is cooperative federalism. Cooperative federalism is the daily cooperation between federal, state, and local governments.

With that being said, American federalism is indeed a complicated system. Some people are pro-states while other people are pro-national government. The following paragraphs will demonstrate these different views with the help of some of our past presidents, specifically, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was president from 1933 to 1945, he entered his term during the Great Depression. Unlike his distant cousin, Teddy Roosevelt who only expanded the federal government’s role, Franklin Roosevelt expanded the general government power at all levels in order to relieve the horrible effects of the Great Depression. While Hebert Hoover, the...