Pros And Cons Of Cooperative Federalism

Federalism is a system of government in which the power and authority is divided between the central and the state governments. The idea of federalism dates back to the beginning of our nation, when the founding fathers’ first came up with the idea to appease the power of the states but still have a central government. There are two main types: cooperative and dual federalism both with their pros and cons. Both types of federalism only have two things in common both are forms of federalism and both involve the state and the national government. While dual federalism has very clear lines where state government has control and where nation government does, cooperative federalism the lines “blur” so to speak where you can’t really tell where national

Several threatening circumstances, such as Shays' Rebellion, an economy wavering under the lack of power the federal government, and the inability to pay the debt from the American Revolution, call for another constitutional convention to reevaluate the Articles. Discarding all governmental systems, they decided to start from scratch with an American government based on a new structure of federalism, a method of mutual power that give some more power to the federal government and reserves other powers for the states. Among additional powers, the federal legislature could now tax residents and create and maintain a standing army, and have select power over regulating interstate commerce and creating currency. This new form of government is now known to be termed, dual federalism or also referred to as the “layer cake” federalism model, where the state and national governments are split into their own “layers” or spheres of influence and governs there selves. This type of government works by having the national government and state government, both having equal amounts of power. This results in an uneasy relationship between state governments and national government that produces tension instead of

Generally, the national government dealt with national defense, foreign policy, and currency regulation while the states dealt with local matters, criminal law, and commercial regulation. The national government rules by using powers directly listed in the Constitution. The state governments have as much or more power than national due to the state not having to abide to the Constitution as tightly as the national government does. One of the main issues with dual federalism is that during the civil war, many southern states wanted to their own country and thought they had the power to declare it. While the national government could advise them against that action, they couldn’t stop them, since they didn’t have the power