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Articles Of Confederation Vs Federalism Essay

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Federalism is defined as, “system of government in which the same territory is controlled by two levels of government” (Cornell, n.d, para. 1). In the United States, this system forms the basis of the separation of powers that is the key to the effective governing of the nation. However, the separation of powers between a unitary government and a confederative one is not without overlapping authority as well instances where one, the federal government, can influence policy in state governments, where the latter cannot. How did this style of government come to be from the failure of the Articles of Confederation, and how does it still impact policy on the state level today? The style of government called Federalism came to be as a result of the failure of national cohesion under the Articles of Confederation. Unlike the Constitution, which sets strict guidelines of the powers vested within it in favor of national strength, the Articles favored power to be vested with the states. This undoubtedly caused problems, as although the states were ultimately responsible for what transpired in their borders, the national government could affect …show more content…

This is and was the main problem with Federalism, as the state government could for instance set a tax, which is not forbidden by the Constitution, but comes into conflict with Congress’s authority to tax. What transpires is a system of essentially an overlapping authority in which the national government has a certain amount of authority over the nation as a whole, while the state governments have powers not limited to national government, but the Constitution. “The U.S. Constitution grants the federal government with power over issues of national concern, while the state governments, generally, have jurisdiction over issues of domestic concern” (Cornell, n.d, para.

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Federalism is just a fancy word for the powers given to the states, to the central government, and powers the two share. Document A states that the central government can regulate trade, conduct foreign relations and declare war. The states can set up local governments, hold elections and establish schools. As James Madison said, “The different governments will each control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” What James Madison is trying to say is that the central and state governments have enough power that they don’t control everything.

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This is evident in document A, where it shows you a Venn diagram of which powers are given to the states and which powers are given to the federal government. For one thing, this shows how “a double security arises to the rights of the people”, which means that when the power is distributed between the states and the federal government, neither is able to gain absolute power over the country. Federalism also comes in handy by specifying what the states get to control and what the national government gets to control, which is meant to prevent conflict between the two powers. For example, the task of declaring war is meant for the national government only. If that wasn’t specified, there would likely be a lot of cases where states declared war, and the national government had to clean up the mess.

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