Ch.3: Federalism Flashcards
A system in which the national government shares power with lower levels of government
Federalism
one dominated by the central or national government, in which lower levels of government have little independent power.
unitary system
The Constitution grants two types of powers to the U.S. Congress:
Expressed and Implied
are found at the end of Section 8, which grants Congress the right “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper” (known as the necessary and proper clause) to execute its expressed powers.
Implied powers
this means that when there is a conflict between federal and state law, federal law prevails. Supreme Law of the Land
Supreme Clause
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Reserved powers, or powers that are not specifically delegated to the national government or denied to the states, are derived from the Tenth Amendment.
The Anti-Federalists, who feared a strong national government, pressed hardest for ratification of the XXXX
Tenth Amendment
A given state has the ability to develop and enforce criminal codes, administer health and safety rules, and regulate marriage and divorce laws.
States also regulate individual livelihoods (through licenses to practice medicine, law, and various other professions), and define and enforce laws concerning private property.
Police power
The states and the federal government also share certain powers.
In some areas, states share concurrent powers with the national government whereby they retain and share some power to regulate commerce and affect currency (e.g., by being able to charter banks, grant or deny licenses to engage in a business or practice a trade, regulate the conditions of labor, and levy taxes).
Concurrent power
Requires that states give “full faith and credit” to each other’s “public acts, records, and judicial proceedings.”
Put another way, states are normally expected to honor the public acts and judicial decisions that take place in another state.
However, if a practice in one state is against the “strong public policy” of another state, then the state against the practice is not obligated to recognize it.
Full faith and credit
This has come to mean that a state cannot discriminate against someone from another state or give special privileges to its own residents
Privilege and immunities
are agreements between states to deal with issues that cross state lines, such as environmental concerns and transportation systems.
Interstate Compact
a guarantee of noninterference in various areas of local affairs.
home rule
a constitutional interpretation that gave the federal government exclusive control over some issues and states exclusive control over others.
Dual Federalism
states performed the majority of governing over citizens’ day-to-day lives. List 3 responsibilities
Economic regulation and property law
Civil law (marriage, divorce, adoption)
Criminal law
The Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Congress had, through its implied powers, the legal right to charter a national bank.
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
The Supreme Court established the supremacy of the national government in all matters affecting interstate commerce.
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824):
In 1937, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a series of decisions that expanded the federal government’s power under the commerce clause to protect the rights of workers, extend low-interest credit to farmers and small businesses, and restrict the activities of corporations with dealings in the stock market.
Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal
the principle that a state does not have to submit to national laws in cases where it contends that the national government exceeded its authority.
State’s Right
declared that southern states were not constitutionally bound by Supreme Court decisions outlawing racial segregation.
The Southern Manifesto
helped bring about increased federal action.
State and local governments struggled to handle the needs of the jobless and the poor.
Upon taking office in 1933, president Franklin Roosevelt pledged he would head a more activist federal government to address these problems.
The Great Depression in 1930s
funds provided by the federal government to a state or local government for a specific purpose.
Grants-in-aid
grant programs in which state and local governments submit proposals to federal agencies and for which funding is provided on a competitive basis.
project grants
grants-in-aid in which a formula is used to determine the amount of federal funds a state or local government will receive
formula grants
model in which the various levels of government work together to solve policy problems, often with the federal government providing some portion of the funding, which is spent by the states or localities
cooperative Federalism
Dual federalism as layer cake
Cooperative federalism as marble cake
Mortin Grodzin’s cake analogy
With increased funding, the federal government demanded higher standards and stricter uses for funds
Regulated federalism
The principal that allows national government to override state or local actions in certain policy areas
XXXX occurs when state or local actions do not agree with national requirements.
Preemption
rules forcing states to spend their own money to comply with federal law.
unfunded mandates
Backlash to federal preemption and unfunded mandates led to calls for XXXXX: transferring responsibility from the federal government to state or local governments.
Devoltion
Efforts by presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to devolve many policies back to the states
New Federalism
federal grants-in-aid that allow states considerable discretion in how the funds are spent
Block grants
process by which one unit of government yields a portion of its tax income to another unit of government, according to an established formula
General revenue sharing
economic policies designed to control the economy through taxing and spending, with the goal of benefiting the poor
Redistributive Program
