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US Federalism
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Comparative Politics – Federalism and Devolution
In this course, Dr Andrew Blick (King’s College London) explores the similarities and differences between federalism in the United States and devolution in the United Kingdom. In the first module, we summarise the key characteristics of US federalism, before moving on in the second module to summarise the characteristics and historical context of devolution in the UK. In the third module, we explore the extent to which devolution in the UK can be compared to a federal system, such as that we see in the US, highlighting the similarities between the two. In the fourth module, we explore the limitations on such comparisons, highlighting the ways in which UK devolution and US federalism can be seen as substantially different.
US Federalism
In this module, we explore US Federalism, focusing in particular on: (i) various definitions of federalism; (ii) US federalism as division of responsibilities; (iii) select examples of powers handled centrally at federal level, e.g. foreign policy, and powers handled mostly at state level, e.g. education policy; (iv) the advantages of this system for states in the US, particularly in enabling political representation.
Hello, I'm Andrew Blick.
00:00:05I'm professor of politics and contemporary history at King's College. London.
00:00:07When we talk about federalism, were referring really to both a principal
00:00:12and a system of government.
00:00:17What it really means is that there is a division
00:00:19of powers or sovereignty between two different layers of government.
00:00:22The federal system at the centre covers the whole territory of the whole,
00:00:30the whole federal system.
00:00:35And then there are a series of
00:00:37territorial states, as they're often called within that system.
00:00:41And there are powers that are attached to the federal level of government.
00:00:46And there were powers that attached to the state level of government.
00:00:50Generally speaking, in a federal system at federal level,
00:00:54you have the kind of powers that you need to run a whole state.
00:00:58So, for instance,
00:01:02foreign policy is likely to be handled at the federal
00:01:03level because for a state or country to exist,
00:01:07it has to have a unified foreign policy.
00:01:11Also, it might deal with things like,
00:01:13uh, security policy, defence policy, diplomacy, relations with other states,
00:01:16and also what we might call macroeconomic policy.
00:01:22The economic policy for the whole states, uh, the control of the currency,
00:01:27and it also taxes that apply across the whole state.
00:01:33So those kind of things are handled centrally at federal level.
00:01:36The system government covers the whole of the territory.
00:01:40But then, within a federal system, you have powers also attached to the state level,
00:01:43and states within that system might handle things like education policy,
00:01:50health policy, more the domestic kinds of issues.
00:01:55And one of the motives for having this kind of division
00:01:58is that it means that the powers that can be
00:02:02transferred to a more local or state level and be
00:02:06subject to more immediate control by people in their area
00:02:10electing people to represent them within that area within that state
00:02:15are under the control of people Locally.
00:02:19It means that they are able to have a more immediate
00:02:23input into things that affect their day to day life,
00:02:26like maybe policing policy, schools policy, those kind of issues,
00:02:29while the things that need to be dealt with at the higher level can be and
00:02:34can also be subject to democratic accountability but
00:02:38from the whole population of the state.
00:02:42So important thing to think about there is that there
00:02:44is this division of responsibilities within a federal system,
00:02:47and both the federal and the state level have their own
00:02:51particular areas was responsibility and they're not supposed to override.
00:02:54The other is supposed to be equal,
00:02:59but different in the powers of the attached to them.
00:03:00
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Blick, A. (2022, May 24). Comparative Politics – Federalism and Devolution - US Federalism [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/comparative-politics-federalism-and-devolution
MLA style
Blick, A. "Comparative Politics – Federalism and Devolution – US Federalism." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 24 May 2022, https://massolit.io/courses/comparative-politics-federalism-and-devolution