Why Is Federalism Still Relevant Today

Federalism is still necessary in today’s world. Federalism provides a structure in how we control the government. It secures the individual rights and liberty of the people. It provides a more unified and diverse nation. It is tradition that the states are actual governments operating all together as one whole nation. In a unitary Government, only the central government has all of the power. In federalism, it is shared between multiple powers. Federal needs to stay intact in today’s world. The founding fathers knew what they were doing when they founded our nation. They knew that they did not want a nation like Britain, which is itself, is a unitary government. The colonists had a Representative in Parliament, but it was not someone who lived

Each state operates as its own government, allowing that state to dictate what is best for the people living in their state. Justice Tomas said, “States will retain jurisdiction over most of the policies that affect the daily lives of their citizens and so they can play a creative role in defining individual rights. States not only tailor national programs to local conditions and needs, the rather bleak role assigned to them by some.” (Tomas). A state can take grants from the federal government and are able to accommodate to what that state’s needs. States have varied ethnicity’s and have to create different laws to protect the rights of all their citizens. Daniel Elazar wrote, “The states remain important in a continental nation as reflectors of sectional and regional differences that are enhanced by the growing social and economic complexity of every part of the country, even as the older cultural differences may be diminished by modern communications.”(Elazar) The different regions are even more specific. One region may be forested more than another so the state has laws to protect the forest, while a region that is drier will not have those same laws. To the people in those states have different things they care about and the states can pass their own laws to see that their liberties are

It is our tradition that the states are all governments. Giving up the states as governments is giving up a liberty that you have had for 229 years. Since the Creation of the United Sates, we have always had the states be their own governments that also operate with the central Government. It is still working to this day. True that the general of issues that are affecting America as a whole are global that do not impact the states. However, the reason that it looks that way is the fact that the states are making the laws that influence the people. The central government for the most part are not passing laws to help the people at home, but are passing the laws that deal with pollution and others. The states are still passing laws that affect the other issues like education, mining, ext. The checks and balances provides a great example of federalism. Justice Tomas said, “In other words, federalism provides a check on the national government when the separation of legislative from executive from judicial powers alone cannot do the job or does not do it.” (Tomas) In the unitary system, the central government controls everything, but in our system, it is multiple. Having the different branches ensures that one branch cannot become overly powerful; they are able to check each other and keep themselves in line with the