Ch. 3 Flashcards
A means for placing policy questions on state ballots and having them decided directly by voters.
Ballot Initiative
A system in which the central government has only the powers given to it by the subnational governments.
Confederal System
The day–to–day cooperation among federal, state, and local officials in carrying out the business of government.
Cooperative Federalism
The delegation of authority by the national government to lower units of government (such as at the state and local level) to make and implement policy.
Devolution
The idea that the Constitution created a system in which the national government and the states have separate grants of power with each supreme in its own sphere.
Dual Federalism
A clause in the U.S. Constitution that requires the states to recognize contracts that are valid in other states.
Full Faith and Credit Clause
Federal money provided to state and, occasionally, local governments for community development and to establish programs to help people such as the aged poor or the unemployed; began during the New Deal.
Grants-in-aid
The grant of considerable autonomy to a local government.
Home Rule
The view that the Constitution was written by representatives of the people and ratified by the people. Nation– centered Federalists believe that the national government is the supreme power in the federal relationship. (Hamilton articulated this view in the Federalist Papers.) Nation–centered federalism was the view used by northerners to justify a war to prevent the southern states from seceding in 1861. The alternative view, state–centered federalism, holds that the Constitution is a creation of the states.
Nation-centered Federalism
The view that our constitutional system should give precedence to state sovereignty over that of the national government. State–centered Federalists argue that the states created the national government and the states are superior to the federal government.
State-centered Federalism
The idea of states as places for policy experimentation.
States as Laboratories
Federal laws that require the states to do something without providing full funding for the required activity.
Unfunded Mandates
A system in which the national government is supreme; subnational governments are created by the national government and have only the power it allocates to them.
Unitary System
