Chapter 3 AP Government Notes (pgs 58-81)

Federalism: a way of organizing a nation so that two or more levels of government share 

formal authority over the same area and people.


Unitary government: a central government that holds supreme power in a nation. Most national governments today are this type of government.


Intergovernmental relations: entire set of interactions among national, state, and local governments– including regulations, transfers of funds, and the sharing of information– that constitute the workings of the federal system.


Confederation: the national government is weak, and most or all power is in the hands of the country's components (ex. Individual states)


Why Federalism?

Nations that typically have federalism (in some form): 

  • 11/190 countries in the world

  • All countries with federal systems are democracies

  • Factors

    • Countries large in size and/or population

    • Decentralization the administration of governmental services.

    • Diversity within the country

    • Examples: India, United States, Malaysia, Switzerland, Brazil, Canada, Belgium etc.


Division of Power: 

  • States have responsibility for a wide range of policies and may largely organize themselves and their local governments as they wish. 

  • The constitution makes states responsible for both state and national elections– an important power– and it gives states power to ratify constitutional amendments. 

  • Congress is forbidden to

    • Make new states by dividing old ones

    • Tax articles from one state to another

  • Constituition creates obligations of the national government (ex. Protecting states against violence and invasion)

  • States are forbidden to

    • Tax imports/exports

    • Make their own money

    • Grant titles of nobility

    • Permit slavery

    • Deny due process

    • Deny equal protection of law

    • Impose poll taxes

    • Enter treaties

    • Declare war

    • Raise/maintain military forces


National Supremacy:

  • Supremacy clause: The clause in Article VI of the Constituition that makes the Constitution, national laws, and treaties supreme over state laws as long as the national government is acting within its constitutional limits.

  • Tenth amendment: The constitutional amendment stating, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

  • Brown v. Board of Education: school segregation was unconstituitional. 

  • Tenth amendment cases: National League of cities v. Usery, Garcia v. San Antonio Metro, Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association (look at page 63 for more)

  • McCulloch v. Maryland: An 1819 Supreme Court decision that established the supremacy of the national government over state governments. The court (cheif justice John Marshall) held that Congress had certain implied powers in addition to the powers enumerated in the Constitution. 

  • Gibbons v. Ogden: A landmark case in which the supreme court defined the power of Congress to regulate the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce as encompassing virtually every form of commercial activity.


Key terms:

  • enumerated powers: powers of the federal government that are listed explicitly in the constitution.

  • implied powers: Powers of the federal government that go beyond those enumerated in the constitution, in accordance with the statement that Congress has the power to “make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution” the powers enumerated in Article I. 

  • elastic clause: The final paragraph of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution, which authorizes the Congress to pass all laws necessary and proper to carry out the enumerated powers.

  • Full faith and credit clause: Requiring each state to recongnize the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of all other states. 

  • Extradition: A legal process whereby a state surrenders a person charged with a crime to the state in which the crime is alleged to have been committed.

  • Privileges and immunities: the provision of the constitution according citizens of each state the privileges of citizens of any state they happen to be in.


Intergovernmental Relations: 

  • Dual federalism: A system of government in which the states and the national government each remain supreme within their own spheres, each with different powers and policy responsibilites. 

  • Cooperative federalism: A system of government in which states and the national government share powers and policy assignments. 

    • Shared costs

    • Federal Guidelines

    • Shared administration

  • Devolution: transferring responsibility for policies from the federal government to state and local governments. 

  • Fiscal federalism: the pattern of spending, taxing, and providing grants in the federal system; it is the cornerstone of the national government’s relations with state and local governments.

    • GRANT SYSTEM

      • Categorical grants: Federal granst that can be used only for specific purposes, or categories, of state and local spending. They come with strings attached, such as nondiscrimination provisions.

        • Project grants: Federal categorical grants given for specific purposes and awarded on the basis of the merits of applications.

        • Formula grants: Federal categorical grants distributed according to a formula specified in legislation or in administrative regulations.

      • Block grants: Federal grants given more or less automatically to states or communities to support broad programs in areas usch as community development and social services.

UNDERSTANDING FEDERALISM: 

  • Federalism…

PROS

  • Decentralizes politics

  • Reduces conflict

  • Allows diversity of policy

  • Increases opportunities to participate

  • Increases access to government 

  • Increases acceptability of losing 

CONS

  • Allows losers to win (aka non-popular vote candidates on major elections)

  • Allows local interests to thwart national majorities 

  • Burdens and confuses citizens