What is public opinion?

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Federalism

• Federalism is the sharing of power between a
  national government and various state or regional
  governments.
• Most of the early colonists came from Great
  Britain, which at the time was a monarchy.
  Today, Great Britain has a parliamentarian style
  constitutional monarchy, but it is also a unitary
  state.
• A unitary state is a state or country wherein the
  national government holds most of the power, and
  devolves a small amount to local or regional
  governments.
• After the Revolutionary War, this countrys first
  experiment with democracy came in the form of a
  confederacy.
• A confederacy is a group of states that hold most
  of the power and devolve a limited amount to a
  central government.

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Why Federalism?

• There are a variety of reasons that the colonists
  preferred a federal form of government.
• Protection from common enemies
• A sense of nationalism (nation-state)
• - A nation is a political unit whose people share
  a sense of common identity.
• A strong sense of loyalty to their states

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Why Federalism? (Contd)

• The biggest benefit of federalism is that it
  mixes the best features of confederal and unitary
  systems.
• It allows for the creation of a large republic
  that can offer common defense, economic
  prosperity, and political and social diversity.
• At the same time, it allows individual states to
  maintain much of their authority and local
  political and social customs.

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Confederal, Unitary, and Federal Systems of
Government
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Enumerated Powers

• The Constitution spells out the powers that are
  granted to the states and those that are granted
  to the national government.
• Enumerated powers are those expressly granted to
  Congress in the Constitution.
• Raising armies
• Declaring war
• Setting rules for granting citizenship
• Levying and collecting taxes for the general
  welfare
• Borrowing money
• Regulating interstate and foreign commerce

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Necessary and Proper Clause

• The framers knew it would not be able to
  enumerate all of the powers of Congress
  explicitly, so they added the Necessary and
  Proper Clause.
• The Necessary and Proper Clause, aka the Elastic
  Clause is found in Article I, Section 8 it
  gives Congress the power to pass all laws
  necessary and proper to the powers enumerated in
  Section 8.

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Reserve Powers

• The Constitution did not originally list state
  powers. They were assumed to be all those not
  granted to Congress. However, the Tenth
  Amendment to the Constitution was added to grant
  reserve powers to the states.
• The Tenth Amendment states that any rights not
  granted to Congress nor specifically denied to
  the states in the Constitution are considered the
  right of the states and their people.

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Concurrent Powers

• Many of the powers in the Constitution are
  considered concurrent powers, meaning both the
  national and state governments have the power.
• Taxing
• Borrowing and spending money
• Making and enforcing laws
• Establishing court systems
• Regulating elections
• Healthcare
• Education

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Concurrent Powers Examples of National, State,
and Shared Powers
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Limits on Power

• In addition to granting powers, the Constitution
  also denies Congress and the states specific
  powers.
• Congress cannot
• Suspend the right to a writ of habeas corpus
  (the right to see a judge once arrested).
• Pass bills of attainder (laws that declare an
  individual guilty of a crime).
• Pass ex post facto laws (laws that makes
  something illegal after the fact).
• Ban the importation of slavery until 1808.

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Limits on Power (Contd)

• States cannot
• Pass bills of attainder
• Pass ex post facto laws
• Create titles of nobility
• Enter into a treaty or alliance with foreign
  government
• Tax imports or exports
• Deny any person due process or equal
  protection (Equal Protection Clause)
• Deny any person the right to vote based on race
  or sex or age
• Guarantee Clause
• Provides a federal government guarantee that the
  states will have a republican form of government,
  as opposed to a direct democracy

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Relations between National and State Governments

• The Supremacy Clause (Article 6)
• Makes federal laws supreme over state laws
• Tenth Amendment
• States that all powers not delegated to the
  national government under the Constitution are
  reserved to the states
• Sovereign immunity
• Doctrine holding that states cannot be sued
  without their permission
• Eleventh Amendment
• Congress can allow lawsuits against the states
  based on provisions in constitutional amendments
  passed after the Eleventh Amendment.

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Relations Among the States

• The Commerce ClauseEstablished Congresss
  exclusive authority to regulate commerce among
  the states
• States may not regulate interstate commerce and
  cannot establish trade barriers against goods
  from other states.
• States may tax goods from other states equal to
  the amount that they tax goods produced in their
  own states, but they cannot charge extra taxes to
  goods that are made out of state.
• Full Faith and Credit ClauseRequires states to
  accept court decisions and most contracts made in
  other states
• Privileges and Immunities ClauseRequires that a
  state treat people from other states equally to
  its own residents

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The Changing Nature of American Federalism

• Nation-centered federalism
• View that the Constitution and the federal
  government derive from the people, not from the
  states
• Hamilton sought expansive federal power and, in
  1790, proposed that Congress establish a national
  Bank of the United States.
• In McCulloch vs. Maryland, the Supreme Court
  recognized that Congress had the explicit
  authority to coin money and collect taxes, and
  declared that the creation of a bank helped reach
  those goals thus creating a bank as an implied
  power that fell within the scope of authority
  granted by the Necessary and Proper Clause.

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The Changing Nature of American Federalism

• State-centered federalism
• View that the states created the Constitution and
  the federal government
• Jefferson opposed Hamilton and the federalists
  ,and he was a strong supporter of states rights.
• Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) is an example of a
  case in which the Supreme Court sided with the
  rights of states. The Supreme Court declared that
  Congress had no authority to regulate slavery in
  the territories.

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The Changing Nature of American Federalism
(Contd)

• Duel Federalism
• Doctrine holding that, although the national
  government is supreme in some spheres, state
  governments remain supreme in others, with layers
  of authority separate from one another
• Cooperative Federalism
• A view that state and national governments work
  together to solving problems
• New Deal
• Civil Rights

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Dual Federalism and Cooperative Federalism

• Dual federalism has been likened to a layer cake
  (left), and cooperative federalism has been
  likened to a marble cake (right).

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New Federalism

• Shifting of power back to the states beginning
  with Nixon (1969)
• General Revenue Sharing
• Money from Congress to the states that could be
  spent however the states wanted
• Moved away from categorical grants that were
  controlled by the national government.
• Block Grants
• Money from Congress to the states that could be
  spent in broad rather than specific categories
• Contract with America
• Campaign proposal containing ten legislative
  initiatives used by Republicans running for the
  House of Representatives in 1994 designed to
  reduce the power of the national government

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New Federalism
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State Governments

• All 50 states have separate legislative and
  executive branches, and all choose the head of
  the executive branch by direct election.
• Most states have four-year gubernatorial terms,
  limit their governor to two consecutive terms,
  and provide for succession by the lieutenant
  governor.
• Most states grant their governors a line-item
  veto, the ability to veto certain parts of
  spending bills without vetoing the entire bill.
• The president does not have line-item veto power
  and is often forced to sign or veto an entire
  omnibus bill, which combines tens of thousands of
  separate spending items together in one bill.
• A line-item veto provides governors greater
  control to manage spending.

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State Governments (Contd)

• The biggest difference between state and national
  governments is the selection of judges.
• National judges are nominated by president and
  confirmed by Senate.
• State judges are selected in a variety of ways,
  including gubernatorial appointments and
  elections.
• Missouri Plan
• Process for selecting state judges whereby the
  original nomination is by an appointment and
  subsequent retention occurs by election

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Local Governments
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Local Governments

• Local governments are far more diverse in
  function and design than state governments.
• Layers of government
• County
• City
• Village
• Township
• School boards
• Water Districts
• Fire Districts

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Local Governments (Contd)

• Most local governments do not have three separate
  branches, but most have some type of executive
  branch.
• Mayors in cities and villages
• Supervisors in counties
• City manager system
• The legislative branch appoints a professional
  administrator to run the executive branch.

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Direct Democracy in Federalism

• Recall Elections
• Allow citizens, if they gather enough petition
  signatures, an opportunity to hold a special vote
  to remove state or local elected officials before
  their terms expire
• Initiatives
• A process that allows citizens who collect the
  required number of petition signatures to place
  proposed laws directly on the ballot
• Referendums 
• A process that allows legislatures to put certain
  issues on the ballot for citizen approval or
  requires legislatures to seek citizen approval
  for certain actions by the legislature

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States That Allow Recall, Initiative, and
Referendum
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Initiative Spending
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Federalism and Public Policy

• Policy diffusion
• Process by which policy ideas and programs
  initiated by one state spread to other states
• Race to the bottom
• Situation in which states compete with one
  another to lower protections and services below
  the level they might otherwise prefer

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Federalism and Public Policy (Contd)

• Education
• Education is among the reserved powers left to
  the states. State and local governments develop
  the responsibility for educating the populace.
• But, the federal government has numerous ways to
  provide equal access to education across income
  level, race, and level of disability.
• Brown v. Board of Education
• Head Start
• No Child Left Behind
• Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA)

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Federalism and Public Policy Education
On March 30, 2010, President Obama approved the
Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act at
Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria.
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Focus Questions

• How does federalism affect governments
  responsiveness? To what and to whom are federal
  systems accountable?
• What does it mean for citizen equality when
  different states are allowed to have different
  laws on certain subjects?
• How does a federal system make it easier for
  citizens to have an influence in government?
• What has been the relationship between federalism
  and the push for equality in the United States?
• Does federalism prove a gate, or a gateway, to
  democracy? Explain.