What is Federalism?

Hello. My name is John Kincaid on the Robert B.

And Helen s minor professor of government and public service

at Lafayette College in eastern Pennsylvania.

And this is the course on American federalism.

What we today call federalism was invented by the

founders of the United States in 17 87.

The word federal comes from the Latin Fortis

meaning covenant pact or treaty.

The first political ideas expressed in what is

now the United States came from the covenant,

or federal theology of the Puritans,

who emigrated from England and settled in Massachusetts in 16 29 and thereafter.

Covenant signifies a marriage or partnership in which persons or groups consent to

unite for common purposes without giving up their fundamental rights or identity.

Federalism is a form of government

in which different political communities agree to unite for common

purposes without giving up their fundamental powers or identities.

So federalism is a form of government in which

all the conceivable powers of government are constitutionally divided

and shared between a general government that serves the

whole country or nation and separate constituent governments,

often called states, provinces or cantons that make up the country or the nation

for example, which government should have authority to declare war,

coin money, regulate the economy, arrest someone for burglary, run schools,

direct traffic and so on.

In the United States, the general government,

which we normally call the federal government,

has broad nationwide responsibilities.

The state governments have brought regional and local responsibilities.

Power is divided on the basis of scope rather than status.

That is what powers are most appropriate for governing the whole United

States and which powers are appropriate for governing the separate states.

In the case of the United States,

there were 13 states that voluntarily agreed to form a federal union in 17 88.

They did so through a written constitution.

A written constitution is essential for federalism because

necessary to specify the distribution of powers and

other rules governing the powers and relationships among

all the governments in the federal union.

Also, when independent governments unite in a union,

a written constitution is needed to

create the institutions of the general government

and establish rules for how those institutions will work.

Thus,

the United States constitution created to entirely new government institutions,

the presidency and the Supreme Court,

and it radically changed an already existing institution.

The Congress,

most important and necessary for a federal system,

is that each order of government has independent authority

to enact laws that govern the same people living on the same territory.

For example, Pennsylvania, where I live,

enacts environmental protection laws that I must obey.

But our general government in Washington, D. C.

Which we normally call the federal government, also enacts

environmental protection laws. I must obey those two.

So laws enacted by the federal government

apply to everyone living on the territory of the United States.

The laws of a single state apply to everyone living on the territory of that state.

Similarly,

I pay an income tax to the federal government

and an entirely separate income tax to Pennsylvania.

The federal government has independent constitutional

authority to levy an income tax.

Each state also has independent constitutional authority.

To levy its own income tax, 42 of the 50 states have chosen to levy an income tax.

This income tax example points to two important features of American federalism.

For one, there's diversity among the 50 states.

Each state has its own constitution,

its own civil and criminal laws, its own system of local government.

For example, my next door state, New Jersey,

has a Constitution that's very different from the Pennsylvania Constitution.

New Jersey also has legalised the recreational use of marijuana.

Pennsylvania has not done so.

Could I go to New Jersey

and buy and consume marijuana? Yes.

Could I bring that marijuana back to Pennsylvania? No,

not without the risk of being arrested by

the police in Pennsylvania for illegally possessing marijuana.

Second, there's some competition for residents and businesses among the states.

One reason why states such as Nevada,

Florida and Texas have no income tax is because they want

to attract residents from states that have an income tax.

And they've been pretty successful in doing so.

Federalism, therefore, is a form of government that combines unity with diversity

through the Constitution,

the states established as much unity as they could agree on

leaving everything else to the states.

As such, federalism is an agreement to disagree.

We can unite around the things on which we can agree and

allow things on which we cannot agree to be worked out differently.

Among the states, for example,

Americans have long had deep disagreements over capital punishment.

Currently 24 states have the death penalty, 23 do not,

and three have a moratorium on executions imposed by their state

governor.

A shorthand way to think about federalism is to say

that it's a system of shared rule and self rule

through the general or federal government.

The peoples of the 50 states share in the governance of the country as a whole,

while they maintain self rule for themselves in their own states.

Furthermore,

the United States Constitution specifically guarantees

the territorial integrity of each state.

Congress cannot change the borders of any state

without the consent of the state's legislature.

Another way to understand federalism is to compare

it to two other forms of government.

One is a unitary form of government

in a unitary system. All powers belong to the central government.

The central government does not have to share powers with other governments.

A unitary government, however,

may choose to grant certain powers to regional or local governments.

This is called decentralisation, or devolution.

Legally, however, the unitary government

ordinarily re centralise those powers at any time.

Confederation is another form of government.

A confederation is a voluntary alliance of sovereign independent states

established to manage matters of common concern to the member states,

especially defence.

The verb Confederates has traditionally meant to form an alliance

that carries out the will of a coalition of interests,

none of which surrender sovereignty to the confederation.

The United Nations is a kind of confederation.

A key difference between a federation and a confederation

is that a federation establishes a nation state

that possesses attributes of sovereignty,

and the general or national government can legislate directly for individuals.

Thus, for example, under the US Constitution,

the federal government can tax, fine,

arrest and regulate individuals and also

conscripts citizens into military service.

By contrast, the Confederation government under the US Articles of Confederation

could not tax fine arrests,

regulate individuals or conscripts citizens into the military.

So prior to 17 88

the word federal meant what we today call confederation.

The founders of the United States transformed this ancient idea federalism

by creating a federal government that could legislate directly for individuals.

Many Americans were shocked by this change.

Therefore, they oppose the proposed constitution