Chapter 3

Question 1

Federalism

Answer 1

division of power across local, state, and national governments

Question 2

Sovereign Power

Answer 2

supreme power of an independent state to regulate its internal affairs without foreign interference

Question 3

Police Powers

Answer 3

Power to enforce laws and provide for the public safety

Question 4

Concurrent Powers

Answer 4

responsibilities for particular policy areas, like transportation, that are shared by federal, state, and local governments

Question 5

National Government powers examples

Answer 5

Print money
Regulate interstate commerce and international trad
Make treaties and conduct foreign policy
Declare war
Provide an army and navy
Establish post offices
Make laws necessary and proper to carry out these powers

Question 6

State Government powers examples

Answer 6

Issue licenses
Regulate intrastate businesses
Conduct elections
Establish local governments
Ratify amendments of the Constitution
Promote public health and safety
May exert powers that the Constitution does not delegate to the national government or does not prohibit the states from using

Question 7

Concurrent powers examples

Answer 7

Collect taxes
Build roads
Borrow money
Establish courts
Make and enforce laws
Charter banks and corporations
Spend money for general welfare; take private property for public purposes with just compensation

Question 8

McCulloch v Maryland

Answer 8

Maryland couldn’t tax the 2nd Bank of the United States but Congress could create it under the necessary and proper and supremacy clauses

Question 9

Gibbons v Ogden (1824)

Answer 9

Said NY interfered with interstate commerce by granting a monopoly to a steamboat company

Question 10

States’ rights

Answer 10

the idea that states are entitled to a certain amount of self-government, free of federal government intervention; central issue in the period leading up to the Civil War

Question 11

South states wanted broader states right on

Answer 11

civil liberties, tariffs, slavery

Question 12

Calhoun’s nullification

Answer 12

states right to ignore a law passed by Congress if the state thought it was unconstitutional

Question 13

Dual federalism

Answer 13

form of federalism favored by Taney where national and state governments were seen as distinct entities providing separate services
Limits national government powers to ones strictly enumerated in the constitution
“layer cake”

Question 14

“dual citizenship”

Answer 14

an individual’s rights as a U.S. citizen under the Bill of Rights didn’t apply to the same person under state law

Question 15

Barron v Baltimore

Answer 15

ruled that the 5th Amendment only applied to Congress and not to state and local government
core principle of dual federalism

Question 16

Dred Scott v Sandford

Answer 16

decision indicated there couldn’t be a political solution to slavery

Question 17

14th Amendment

Answer 17

prohibits states from denying citizens due process or equal protection of the laws and was the constitutional basis for many civil rights laws during Reconstruction
Court ruled that right of due process and equal treatment only applied to individuals as US citizens, not to state citizenship

Question 18

cooperative federalism

Answer 18

form of federalism where national and state governments work together to provide services efficiently
“marble cake”
emerged in late 1930s and represents shift to less concrete boundaries of responsibility in national-state relations

Question 19

picket fence federalism

Answer 19

more refined and realistic form of cooperative federalism where policy maker within a policy area work together across levels of government

Question 20

fiscal federalism

Answer 20

form off federalism where federal funds are allocated to lower levels of government through transfer payments or grants
Something generally expected in return

Question 21

New federalism

Answer 21

1969-present
tries to shift power to the states by consolidating categorical grants into block grants and giving states authority over programs

Question 22

Coercive federalism

Answer 22

1970s-present
form of federalism where the federal government pressures states to change policies by using regulations, mandates, and conditions

Question 23

Categorical grants

Answer 23

federal aid to state or local governments that is provided for specific purposes, like a mass-transit program within the transportation budget or a school lunch program within education budget

Question 24

block grants

Answer 24

federal aid given to the state government to be spent within a certain policy area, but the state decides how to spend the money within the area
Promoted by advocated of cooperative federalism

Question 25

unfunded mandates

Answer 25

federal laws that require states to do certain things but do not give state governments funding to implement these policies

Question 26

3 characteristics of American politics in the past 60 years that reinforced the role of the national government

Answer 26

-reliance on national government in times of crisis and war
-“rights revolution” of the 50s and 60s and the Great Society programs of the 60s
-rise of coercive federalism

Question 27

federal preemptions

Answer 27

impositions of national priorities on states through national legislation that is based on the Constitution’s supremacy clause
another method of coercive federalism

Question 28

competitive federalism

Answer 28

form of federalism where states compete to attract businesses and jobs through the policies they adopt
also a check on tyranny, people will “vote with their feet” -leave
may lead to a “race to the bottom” by eliminating too many good regulations

Question 29

remedial legislation

Answer 29

national laws that address discriminatory state laws, authority comes from section 5 of the 14th amendment

Question 30

states’ sovereign immunity

Answer 30

based on the 11th amendment, immunity that prevents state governments from being sued by private parties in federal courts unless the state consents to the suit

Question 31

“equal sovereignty”

Answer 31

laws passed by congress can’t violate state sovereignty much of the time

Question 32

United States v Lopez

Answer 32

1995 case that struck down a federal law regulating possession of guns around schools
1st time Court had restricted Congress’s power to pass legislation under the commerce clause since the New Deal in the 1930s

Question 33

federalism disadvantages

Answer 33

-inefficiency in policy process
-inequality in political outcomes

Question 34

Liberals favor

Answer 34

strong national power to fight discrimination (women, minorities, disabled people, LGBTQ+, and the elderly) and push for progressive national policies

Question 35

Conservatives favor

Answer 35

limited national government intrusion and letting the states choose their own mix of social welfare and regulatory policies

Question 36

Advantages of a strong role for the states

Answer 36

-states can be “laboratories for democracy”
-state and local government is closer to the people
-states provide more access to the political system
-states provide an important check on national power

Question 37

Disadvantages of too much state power

Answer 37

-unequal distribution of resources across states
-unequal protection for civil rights
-competitive federalism that results in a “race to the bottom”
-more people vote in national elections than state and local elections

Question 38

“statehouse” democracy

Answer 38

more liberal states enact liberal policies and more conservative states enact conservative policies