Chapter 3

unitary system

•  a system where the central government has all of the power over subnational governments. – United Kingdom, China, Iran

confederal system

• a system where the subnational governments have most of the power. – Articles of Confederation; derive authority from the states

federal system

• a system where power is divided between the national and state governments. – USA, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia

Exclusive powers

• are powers that only the national government may exercise

Commerce clause

• rants Congress the power to "regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."

  • Congress has claimed the authority to define nearly any productive activity as commerce.

Enumerated or expressed powers

• Refer to those powers granted to the national government in the Constitution, and especially to Congress.

Implied powers

are not specifically granted to the federal government. Under the necessary and proper clause, Congress can make laws to carry out its enumerated powers.

Necessary and proper clause

• also called the elastic clause, a critical source of power for the national government

  • Grants Congress the authority to legislate as necessary for carrying out its constitutionally granted powers (implied powers).

Supremacy clause

• “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States . . . shall be the supreme Law of the Land” 

  • the states must abide by the laws passed by Congress, even if state constitutional provisions conflict with them.

Concurrent powers

• granted in the Constitution allow national and state authority to overlap in the areas of public policy. 

  • Examples: enforce a tax, create courts, borrow money

full faith and credit clause

requires states to recognize the public acts, records, and civil court proceedings from another state

Extradition

is the requirement that officials in one state return a defendant to another state where a crime was allegedly committed

privileges and immunities clause

prevents states from discriminating against people from out of state

McCulloch v. Maryland

• BACKGROUND: Second Bank of United States had a branch in Maryland.  The state passed a law taxing the bank, and the bank official refused to pay the tax

• QUESTION: Is the Bank of the United States Constitutional? If so, can a state tax it?

• DECISION: Constitutional under the implied powers of congress

• RESULT: strengthened power of national government: Necessary and Proper Clause and Supremacy Clause

United States v. Lopez

• BACKGROUND:

  • Alfonso Lopez brought a gun to school and was charged with violating the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990

• QUESTION: 

  • Is the Gun-Free School Zones Act unconstitutional because it exceeds the power of Congress to legislate under the Commerce Clause?

• MAJORITY DECISION:

  • 5-4 decision against Lopez, “the possession of a gun in a local school is in no sense an economic activity that might…substantially affect any sort of interstate commerce.”

• REASONING:

  • If bringing a gun to school was commerce, then anything could be commerce – too much of a limit on state police powers

Dual Federalism

• A form of American federalism in which the states and the nation operate independently in their own areas of public policy

  • Very little overlap in policy execution

• “is like a great factory wherein two sets of machinery are at work, their revolving wheels apparently intermixed, their bands crossing one another, yet each set doing its own work without touching or hampering the other.”

Cooperative federalism

• both levels work together in the same areas of public policy

  • National government provide funds and set standards while states implement

grants-in-aid

Tool used by the federal government to achieve policy objectives within states

Fiscal federalism

• the federal government’s use of grants-in-aid to influence policies in the states

Unfunded mandates

• the national government requiring states to pay for programs without providing funds

Categorical grants

• provided to states with specific provisions on their use

  • Limited in how states can spend funding

Block grants

• Tactic of devolution

• A form of grant-in-aid that gives the state more control over how to disperse federal funds

Revenue sharing

• when the federal government apportions tax money to the states with no strings attached (ended because too costly)

Devolution

Returning more authority to state or local governments

13th amendment

abolished slavery and involuntary servitude across the United States, except as a punishment for a crime

15th amendment

protects citizens from being denied the right to vote based on their race, color, or previous condition of servitude

14th amendment

defines citizenship, guarantees equal protection under the law, and protects people's basic rights from state governments

10th amendment

any powers not given to the federal government, or blocked from the states, belong to the individual states or to the people

Reserved powers

political powers that a constitution does not explicitly grant to a central government or deny to regional governments, leaving them instead to local states or the people