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Recommended: Reflection on federalism
In the summer of 1787, the new government of the United States of America realized that there was a problem with their current government. Many parts of the constitution guards against tyranny because the new constitution has checks and balances, the separation of powers and federalism. The original problem that was called to the attention of the old government was the articles of confederation were very weak, and they needed to create a strong central government. According to document A, a quote by James Madison states, “The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will controlled by itself.” The central and state government will work together, which shows federalism.
The Constitution of the United States, a document setting up America’s government system. When we broke away from the big, bad king of England after the revolutionary war, we strived to create a government unlike the tyranny we had before, a democracy. The Articles of Confederation were created, giving the states more power then the central government. It got the US nowhere, many problems arised, each state which different money systems, different tax laws, and a central government that had no power over the states. Many people knew this government was not working, and most likely would not last long, so a group of individuals (rich white males) came together to discuss a new form of government, around the idea of federalism.
This specific system of government is described by the 21st Century American Government and Politics textbook as, “The allocation of powers and responsibilities among national, state, and local governments and the intergovernmental relations between them.” When deciding whether the Framers intended for federal or state governments to be supreme in the federal system, a divided answer among the Founders surfaces. If one was to present this question to Alexander Hamilton and his fellow Federalists, he would undoubtedly express his support for a strong federal government. Conversely, Thomas Jefferson and the anti-federalists were in favor of state government supremacy in the federal system and even resented the ratification of the Constitution.
DBQ Essay The United States Constitution is a document that or founding fathers made in order to replace the failing Articles of Confederation (A of C). Under the Constitution, the current government and states don’t have the problems they faced when the A of C was in action. The Constitution was created in 1788, and held an idea that the whole nation was nervous about. This idea was a strong national government, and the Federalist assured the people that this new government would work. The framers of the Constitution decided to give more power to the Federal government rather than the state governments because the A of C had many problems, there was a need for the layout of new government, rights, and laws, and there was a need for the Federal
Through “Sweatshop Oppression,” an essay written by Rajeev Ravisankar, the reader gains insight on the truthful and factual reality of oppressive workplace conditions. Ravisankar seeks to appeal to the morals and values of the audience by having relatable content and using the emotion and logic based rhetorical devices “pathos” and “logos.” In the opening paragraph the author connects with the audience by inclusively saying: “being the “poor” college students that we all are, many of us undoubtedly place an emphasis on finding the lowest prices” (). Through revealing he is a student with mutual financial struggles, the audience quickly picks up on his relatable and likeable voice.
The founding father’s idea when they created the Constitution was to prevent a centralized government. As expressed by James Madison in Federalist No. 51, they believe that the power surrendered by people would be divided between the federal and state governments, creating balance of power that would enable both governments to control each other. Over time, the balance of power between the federal and state governments has shifted in favor of the federal government and this has taken place with the help of the Constitution and by enactments of Congress. The role that Chief Justice John Marshall played in defining the power of the federal and state governments during the early 19th century is important to mention because he shaped the nation.
Throughout history federalism has gone through several substantial changes, such as the boundaries and balances between the state and national government. Due to this we have experienced several different era’s of federalism from the original “dual-federalism” to the “new federalism” and just about everything else in between. Dual-federalism also known as divided sovereignty was a optimistic belief that federal and state government could exist if their was a clear division between authority. The problem with this is that there was a clever mechanism in the constitution that reserved a powers clause in favor of the national government. Such cases held in Marshall court favored the national government “McCulloch v. Maryland(1819)”, “Gibbons
With the state governments having more power, there was no order in the country. Every state had different laws, taxes, court systems, and currencies, so it was like each state was its own individual country. When the national government had more power, the country was more organized and unified because everyone followed the same laws, had most of the same taxes, had one national court system, and all had the same type of currency. The country was also somewhat more equal because each state had an equal number of representatives in the government. Federalists were happy with the decision to pass the Constitution because they supported it, while the anti-federalists were unhappy because they were against it.
Federalism breaks apart the powers given to the central (Federal) government and those powers given to the states. As seen in document A1, a source from James Madison from Federalist Paper #51, 1788; Madison states, “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments.” This idea from Madison is the idea of the division of power between the Federal Government and State Governments. Federalism provides a “Double security,” that protects the rights of the citizens of the United States of America. As the governments will be controlled by itself, the separate governments will also control each other.
Not so long after, problems arose with the governmental system and our founding fathers gathered and started considering different ideas to improve the governmental structure. Large and small states had different suggestions on what should be done to solve the problem. Yet, two things remained clear; Americans feared the British system and wanted nothing similar to it and, the Articles of Confederation had proved inefficient due to the restricted power of the federal government. Two main plans were the reason of debate, the battle was between the federalist and the antifederalist. The powers vested on the executive were a big part of the discussion and the arguments were sustained through a series of publications called the Federalist
This shows that the concept of checks and balances could be used to keep the national government in line and not get out of control. There were federalist who supported a strong central government and then there were others. The anti-federalists thought the power should go to the people. The American society did not have a large amount of change in the economic field.
Not long after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the American citizens began to disagree about how the United States should operate. They were conflicted about how much power the federal government should possess, as stated in Chapter 10 of History in the Making, which says that “at heart, Federalists and Republicans disagreed about how much power to vest in the central government or, conversely, about how capable the people were in governing
The ratification of the 16th amendment allowed a federal income tax, the formation of the Electoral College gave the federal government a huge say in who the next president would be, and supremacy clauses made sure that the federal government had precedence over states. Moreover, the regulations placed during the progressive era showed how much the citizens were willing to give up their power to the government for some sense of security; shipping was regulated as well as food/agriculture and distribution of goods. The amalgamation of such small change slowly made federal power to what it is today and with the addition of the New Deal – the Republican Party got the strong federal government they wanted. Slowly the government’s goal of being a protector of individual rights and liberty disappeared and a new goal of maintaining economic well being came to. This new goal hasn’t changed since it’s inception in the 1920’s and is a primary concern today next to national security.
At this time, the American people stand divided. On one side, there are the federalists. They want a central government with limited powers and to ratify the constitution without addition. On the other end of the spectrum, there are the anti-federalists. They wish for power to be given to the states instead of a central government and to set the new constitutional rights in stone.
This country was founded with the attempt to separate the federal government and the state government, known as federalism. The goal of federalism is to divide the power of state and federal governments, protect the rights of the state, and prevent tyranny of the majority. Throughout the years, federalism turned into dual federalism where the state and federal government were completely independent of each other and only shared a dependency on the Constitution. The united states suppressing now to cooperative federalism, the national government has assumed even more power, overruling the states with Supreme Court decisions and actions, and executive Orders. Furthermore, the Federal government should grant their state governments more power, due to the connection the state governments hold with their local people.