Government: Chapter 3: Federalism and the States Key Terms

Federalism

• A system where authority is divided between a national government and state governments.

Horizontal Federalism

• Relationships and interactions between states (e.g., states competing for PPE during COVID).

Vertical Federalism

• Relationships between different levels of government (federal → state → local).

Laboratories of Democracy

• Idea that states experiment with policies and others learn from their successes or failures.

Confederation

• System where states retain most authority and national government is weak (Articles of Confederation).

Unitary System

• System where national government holds all authority; lower units are administrative (e.g., France).

Enumerated Powers

• Powers explicitly listed in the Constitution for the federal government (Article I, Sec. 8).

Police Powers

• State authority to regulate health, safety, and welfare of citizens.

Concurrent Powers

• Powers shared by federal and state governments (e.g., taxation).

Supremacy Clause

• Federal law overrides conflicting state law.

Necessary & Proper Clause

• Allows Congress to pass laws needed to carry out enumerated powers; basis for implied powers.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

• Supreme Court case establishing implied powers and ruling states cannot tax federal institutions.

Commerce Clause

• Gives Congress power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce; major source of federal expansion.

Wickard v. Filburn (1942)

• Case holding that even personal wheat production affects interstate commerce → federal regulation allowed.

Incorporation

• Applying the federal Bill of Rights to the states through the 14th Amendment.

Tenth Amendment

• States retain powers not given to the federal government

• Treated as a truism by the Supreme Court.

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

• Case applying self-incrimination protections to states; police must inform suspects of rights.

Timbs v. Indiana (2019)

• Case incorporating the Excessive Fines Clause against the states.

Race-to-the-bottom

• When states weaken regulations or standards to gain competitive advantage (e.g., child labor laws).

Grants-in-aid

• Federal funds given to states with conditions on how they must be used.

  
  

Sixteenth Amendment

• Gave federal government power to tax incomes; greatly increased federal resources.

Cooperative Federalism

• System where federal and state governments work together, but federal government leads.

New Deal

• 1930s federal programs expanding national power to address the Great Depression.

NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel (1937)

• Case upholding federal regulation of labor disputes under the Commerce Clause.

Modern Federalism

• Post‑1960s era marked by major federal expansion through civil rights, poverty programs, Medicare, Medicaid.