Cooperative Federalism

You may be wondering “what is federalism?”,Federalism is in fact a federal principle or system of government. Federalism has existed in the America ever since the creation of the states. Creating a national government was hard because the power of the of the states and national government were a constant debate. The main point of a federalist government is to avoid tyranny which is a cruel and oppressive government or rule. And to allow people to have more of a say in the way their government is run.

There are four different periods of federalism; dual federalism, known for the states and federal governments having very little communication this era lasted from 1789 to 1901. Cooperative federalism which was known for having greater communication

All states eventually agreed to the drinking age being 21, therefore making the United States have the highest drinking age in the world. Some states financially had no choice but to accept because it would be a loss of millions of dollars in highway funding. Another more recent example of the National Government using highway funding as lever was in 2009. The issue this time pertained to texting and driving, although it was not successful, if it had been enforced it would have seen states that did not outlaw texting and driving have their highway funding decreased by twenty-five percent. If this had materialized it may have made the roads today much safer because drivers would be more focused on the road and not their phones. Another successful example occurred in 1974 when the speed limit was set to fifty-five miles per hour. The reason for this was to lower the demand for gas, because there was an oil embargo. The amount of highway funding reduction would be a reflection of their compliance. “according to a paper in the American Journal of Public Health, "road fatalities declined 16.4%, from 54,052 in 1973 to 45,196 in 1974."”(The