Nature and Basis

• Federalism is the sharing of sovereignty between the individual states and the central government
• The US has a federal government, which makes laws that apply to all of the states, territories and the District of Columbia. The 50 states also have individual governments
• Who is the executive branch run by in State governments?

  Governor, who is democratically elected
• The governor is responsible fro the implementation of state laws and running the executive branch.
• Which amendment lays out the federal system of the US?

  10 th amendment : ‘the powers not delegated to the US by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. This amendment forbids the federal government from acting in ways not allowed by the constitution
• What was Dual Federalism?

  This was the period between the founding of the USA as a republic (1780s) up until the 1920s and 1930s. States had strong rights and so the President and federal government was much less powerful. The government had power that was clearly defined and limited
• What is Cooperative Federalism?

  A period from the 1930s to the 1960s when the federal government’s powers over the states increased. New executive departments were created that had power over specific things. E.g. Defence and Transportation. Grants with specific purposes were increased, which specified what the money had to be spent on
• What is New Federalism?

  A movement of power back to the states from the central government which took place form the 1970s to the 1990s. Republican presidents have mostly been responsible for this movement. For example, ‘block grants’ are given to states which have no designated purpose, so states can do what they wish with them
• Federalism under Obama

  Federal government’s power increased. Healthcare is of the most important examples of this, changing the way that people purchased health insurance and mandating that all individuals bought health insurance.
• States were allowed to choose their own policy directions, such as the legalisation of cannabis in some states, but only when this suited the aims of the Obama administration