Federalism

INTRODUCTION TO FEDERALISM

Federalism is the form of government in the united states where separate states are united under one central authority but with specific powers granted to both components in a written constitution .Patrick Henry coined the word in 1788 when, during the Virginia ratification convention debates over the proposed U.S Constitution ,he angrily asked, “Is this federalism?.’’ In 1787 the constitution replaced it with another, more balanced, version that has worked for over two centuries. During the time, however the history of federalism has been incessantly disrupted by a constant debate between those who wanted to enlarge the central government and those who demanded that states’ rights be strictly respected and even expanded.

During Reconstruction the war argument over the use of federal power erupted in violence against newly enfranchised blacks and Republican government in the South .In the late nineteenth century the federal government retreated from its temporary expansion of power in saving the Union and trying to remake the South. Whether in tolerating state created racial segregation or striking down federal efforts to regulate the new industrial order, the federal courts limited federal authority in many areas of public life. At the beginning of the twentieth century progressive reformers wanted to enlarge the role of the federal government and solve glaring economic and social problems. With mixed success they sought federal legislation to regulate the workplace, protect labor unions, and promote “moral improvement.” During the 1930s the new deal redefined federalism and saved the economy by recognizing federal responsibility over many areas of public and private activity that previously had been unregulated or solely the purview of the states,

Including banking, the stock exchanges, and the workplace. In the last half of the twentieth century federalism was the central issue in both black and women’s civil rights. It was at the heart of a redefinition of criminal justice by the Warren Court .The liberal interpretation of it by this court in turn became the target of a conservative attempt to diminish congressional power under the doctrine of “original intent” and to use the federal judiciary to return more authority to state and local government. At the beginni...

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...f Rights. The founding of an American constitutional republic in the eighteenth century with a federal system of democratic government attracts the attention of thoughtful citizens today not only in the United Sates but also those who are attempting to establish constitutional democracy in the other nations.

FEDERALISTS’ VIEW

In contrast, the Federalists viewed both levels of government to be responsible directly to the people, as creators of both their state and national governments. Moreover, Federalists believed that a large “extended republic” was the prescription necessary to save the republican experiment that had been fought for during the American Revolution and nearly lost during the critical period of the 1780s under the Articles of Confederation.

The Federalist constituted a distinguished and original American contribution to political thought. The Federalist established the standards for republicanism, natural rights, and a government operating under a written constitution.

States’ rights may be defined as “the prerogative power of a state to exercise its inherent authority.”(Written by Fredrick D. Drake and Lynn R. Nelson-States Rights and American Federalism.)