Federalism
AP Government
& Politics
Unit 2
Types of Governments
1. Democracy The word "democracy"
Today, typically, the term "aristocracy" is
literally means "rule by the people."
used negatively to accuse a republic of
In a democracy, the people govern.
being dominated by rich people, such
as saying, "The United States has
2. Republic A literal democracy is
become an aristocracy.“
impossible in a political system
containing more than a few people. 5. Dictatorship A dictatorship consists of
All "democracies" are really
rule by one person or a group of
republics. In a republic, the people
people. Very few dictators admit they
elect representatives to make and
are dictators; they almost always claim
enforce laws.
to be leaders of democracies. The
dictator may be one person, such as
3. Monarchy A monarchy consists of
Castro in Cuba or Hitler in Germany, or
rule by a king or queen. Sometimes
a group of people, such as the
a king is called an "emperor,"
Communist Party in China.
especially if there is a large empire,
such as China before 1911. There are 6. Democratic Republic Usually, a
no large monarchies today. The
"democratic republic" is not democratic
United Kingdom, which has a
and is not a republic. A government
queen, is really a republic because
that officially calls itself a "democratic
the queen has virtually no political
republic" is usually a dictatorship.
power.
Communist dictatorships have been
especially prone to use this term. For
4. Aristocracy An aristocracy is rule by
example, the official name of North
the aristocrats. Aristocrats are
Vietnam was "The Democratic Republic
typically wealthy, educated people.
of Vietnam." China uses a variant, "The
Many monarchies have really been
People's Republic of China."
ruled by aristocrats.
Three Ways Power is Shared
Between a National Government
and
States/Sub-Units
• Unitary
– One strong national government
• Example: Great Britain
• Most of the world uses this type
• Confederal
– Strong states or regions with a weak national
government
• Example: The Articles of Confederation, the Confederacy
• Federal*
– A strong central government that shares power with
states or regions
• Example: The United States
Federalism
• Federalism is the theory or advocacy of federal
political orders, where final authority is divided
between sub-units and a center.
• Federalism refers to the apportioning of power
between the federal government and the states.
• In a federal system, the national government
holds significant power, but the smaller political
subdivisions also hold significant power. The
United States, Canada, Australia, and Brazil are
examples of federal systems.
Federalism Terms to Know
•Dual Federalism
•Cooperative Federalism
– Creative Federalism
•New Federalism
•Fiscal Federalism
Models of Federal Governments
Dual Federalism
Cooperative Federalism
Dual Federalism
• Dual Federalism, holds that the federal
government and the state governments are coequals, and each are sovereign.
• In this theory, parts of the Constitution are
interpreted very narrowly.
• In this case, there is a very large group of powers
belonging to the states, and the federal
government is limited to only those powers
explicitly listed in the Constitution.
• In this narrow interpretation, the federal
government has jurisdiction only if the
Constitution clearly grants such.
– Examples: 10th Amendment, the Supremacy Clause,
the Necessary and Proper Clause, and the Commerce
Clause.
AKA…
“Layer Cake Federalism"
Examples of Dual Federalism
• Laissez faire or hands off business
– Gilded Age
• The Dred Scott decision
– States can decide about slave laws
• Jim Crow laws
– States can decide about
segregation/integration
– Plessey v Ferguson
The Switch from Dual to
Cooperative Federalism
• The shift from Dual to Cooperative
Federalism was a slow one, but it was
steady from the New Deal to the late
20th century.
• Dual federalism is not completely dead,
but for the most part, the United States'
branches of government operate under
the presumption of a cooperative
federalism.
Cooperative Federalism
• This theory asserts that the national government
is supreme over the states, and the 10th
Amendment, the Supremacy Clause, the
Necessary and Proper Clause, and the Commerce
Clause have entirely different meaning than in
the Dual Federalism theory.
• A good illustration of the broad interpretation of
this part of the Constitution is exemplified by the
Necessary and Proper Clause's other common
name: the Elastic Clause.
AKA…
“Marble Cake Federalism"
Examples of
Cooperative Federalism
• NCLB
• The New Deal
– Government programs to end the
Great Depression
• The Great Society
– Government programs to end
discrimination AND to provide for
those less fortunate
Cooperative Federalism & Grants
• “Cooperative Federalism" included an explosion
of grants that reached beyond the states to
establish intergovernmental links at all levels,
often bypassing states entirely.
– AKA as “picket fence federalism"
– AKA as Creative Federalism
• Started with the Morrill Land Grant of 1862
– federal government gave each state 30,000 of public
land for each representative in Congress
– the money from the sale of the lands was to establish
and support agricultural and mechanical arts colleges
(UGA, Texas A & M, Michigan State…)
New Federalism
• New Federalism is the arrangement of
administrative reforms with a devolutionary
objective.
– This idea began during modern presidential
administrations starting with Richard Nixon.
– Ronald Reagan’s campaigns centered around
devolution
• It included decentralization of national programs
to regions, streamlining of federal services, and
the redirection of funds towards other levels of
government.
• It also included efforts to reduce national control
over the grants-in-aid programs and revise the
character of federal involvement in general
welfare spending.
Did “New Federalism” Ever
Really Exist?
• From 1980-1989
– Municipalities were required to monitor pollution
from thousands of storm sewers and to test for 77
additional chemicals in municipal water supplies.
Local governments were also required to control 83
new drinking water contaminants.
– School districts were required to identify asbestos
hazards and remove them from local schools.
– States were required to prepare reports on 152 new
endangered species.
– States were required to monitor and enforce actions
requiring businesses and industries to establish and
maintain programs to protect hearing and guard
against exposure to certain dangerous chemicals and
asbestos.
Federal Mandates (the stick)
• Federal laws that direct state and local
governments to comply with federal standards,
rules, or regulations
– Federal Clean Air Act
• Sometimes the federal government will impose a
mandate on state or local governments to
implement a costly policy in return for funds that
may not make up the full costs of the program.
• This is called an Unfunded Mandate
– Example: Endangered Species Act
– Passed by Congress in 1973, which imposes federal
mandates on states to protect animal species that are
deemed in danger of becoming extinct.
– States have NO CHOICE but to follow this Act
whether or not money is supplied by the feds
Unfunded Mandates
Reform Act of 1995
• Prevented Congress from passing costly federal
programs along to the states with at least a
debate on how to fund them
• With its origins in the ‘Devolution Revolution’
(Republican- Contract with America), UMRA
was designed to make it more difficult for the
federal government to make state and local
governments pay for programs and projects
that it refuses to pay for itself.
– Unfortunately, UMRA largely has proven to be a
case of promises unfulfilled
Federal Grants (the carrot)
• The federal government transfers payments or
shares its revenues with lower levels of
government via federal grants.
–
–
–
–
It’s all about the money!!!!
Who has it (the national government)
Who wants it (the states)
And who gets it (the states who jump through the
right hoops)
• Federal governments use this power to enforce
national rules and standards by opening and
closing its “purse strings” for the states
Revenue Sharing
• The transfer of tax revenue to the states
– Congress gave an annual amount of federal tax
revenue to the states and their cities, counties and
townships.
• Revenue sharing was extremely popular with
state officials, but it lost federal support during
the Reagan Administration.
• In 1987, revenue sharing was replaced with
block grants in smaller amounts to reduce the
federal deficit
Two Types of Grants-in Aid
• Block grants
• Grants provided to the states from the federal
government with few strings attached
• For example, a grant for transportation but the
state can decide which roads will be built or where
they will be located Categorical grants
• Categorical grants
• Grants provided to the states from the federal
government with many strings attached
• For example, a grant for roads but the federal
government decides where the road will go or
which road can be widened can decide which road
Welfare Act of 1996
• AKA…The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act
• Was signed in to law on August 22, 1996, by President Bill
Clinton.
– It was a bipartisan effort with the Republican Congress
• It dramatically changed the nation's welfare system into
one that required work in exchange for time-limited
assistance.
• The law contained
– strong work requirements
– a performance bonus to reward states for moving welfare
recipients into jobs
– state maintenance of effort requirements
– comprehensive child support enforcement
– and supports for families moving from welfare to work -including increased funding for child care and guaranteed medical
coverage."
Important Supreme Court Cases
Concerning Federalism
• South Dakota v Dole
• U.S. v Lopez
• Printz v U.S.
• Boumediene v. Bush
• District of Columbia v. Heller
• Bush v Gore
South Dakota vs. Dole (1987)
• The withholding of federal highway funds followed
a study of teenage driving and alcohol-related
accidents
• The federal government required states to raise
their drinking age to 21 in order to receive highway
funds
• South Dakota claimed that the law is
unconstitutional because the 21st amendment gave
power to the states for regulating alcoholic
beverages.
– The state filed suit against Secretary of Transportation
Elizabeth Dole
• Can Congress withhold federal funding in order to
force a state to pass legislation it deems useful?
Decision and Importance
• Decision: “Yes!”
• Why important? The provision was
designed to serve the general welfare AND
it was held that even if Congress lacks the
power to impose a national minimum
drinking age directly, the “nonrequirement” aspect of the regulation was a
valid exercise of Congress' spending power
and upheld states rights
United States vs. Lopez (1995)
• Was the first modern Supreme Court case to
set limits to Congress's lawmaking power.
– Alfonso Lopez, Jr. carried a handgun and bullets
into his high school.
– He was charged with violating Section 922(q) of
the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990.
• The government believed that the possession
of a firearm at a school falls under
jurisdiction of the Commerce Clause.
Decision and Importance
• The Court said, “NO!” to Commerce Clause
in Lopez
– Too much of a stretch to connect guns in school
to commerce
– Federal government had overstretched it’s
boundaries
– Forced states to create the gun laws themselves.
– Why important? Interstate commerce, gun-free
school zones can not be federally mandated
(states rights)
– Was this a change in the direction of the Court?
Printz vs. United States (1997)
• Reagan’s press secretary, James Brady was
seriously injured during the assassination
attempt
• He later lobbied for stricter gun controls
and background checks - these passed and
became known as the “Brady Bill”
• Printz was a sheriff who challenged the
Brady Bill charging that it violated the 10th
Amendment
– Did the federal mandated law take it too far??
Importance
• The Court said “YES!’
• The Court ruled in favor of Printz, ruling that
Congress may not require the States to
administer a federal regulatory program and
that the Act violated the Tenth Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution
– The decision overturned requirements for local
enforcement of the background checks
• Why important? The states are no longer
subordinates in all power disputes involving
unfunded mandates
Habeas Corpus “You have the Body”
• A writ of habeas corpus is a judicial
mandate to a prison official ordering that
an inmate be brought to the court so it can
be determined whether or not that person
is imprisoned lawfully and whether or not
he should be released from custody.
– Prisoners often seek release by filing a
petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
• A habeas corpus petition is a petition filed
with a court by a person who objects to his
own or another's detention or
imprisonment.
– The petition must show that the court
ordering the detention or imprisonment
made a legal or factual error.
Boumediene v. Bush (2008):
• Facts of the Case:
• In 2002 Lakhdar Boumediene and five other Algerian
natives were seized by Bosnian police when U.S.
intelligence officers suspected their involvement in a
plot to attack the U.S. embassy there. The U.S.
government classified the men as enemy combatants in
the war on terror and detained them at the
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which is located on land
that the U.S. leases from Cuba.
• Questions of Law:
• Did Boumediene, as an alien detained at an overseas
military base, have no right to a habeas petition?
• Should the Military Commissions Act of 2006 be
interpreted to strip federal courts of jurisdiction over
habeas petitions filed by foreign citizens detained at the
U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba?
Importance
• No and Yes (5-4 split decision)
• The Court ruled that because the procedures laid
out in the Detainee Treatment Act are not
adequate substitutes for the habeas writ, the
MCA operates as an unconstitutional suspension
of that writ.
• The detainees were not barred from seeking
habeas or invoking the Suspension Clause merely
because they had been designated as enemy
combatants or held at Guantanamo Bay.
Amendment II
• A well regulated militia, being necessary
to the security of a free state, the right
of the people to keep and bear arms,
shall not be infringed.
• What exactly does that mean???
Amendment II
• A well regulated militia, being necessary
,
to the security of a free state (or
should it be a semi-colon ??) the right of
the people to keep and bear arms, shall
not be infringed.
District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)
• For the first time in seventy years, the Court
heard a case regarding the central meaning of the
Second Amendment and its relation to gun
control laws.
• After the District of Columbia passed legislation
barring the registration of handguns, requiring
licenses for all pistols, and mandating that all
legal firearms must be kept unloaded and
disassembled or trigger locked, a group of private
gun-owners brought suit claiming the laws
violated their Second Amendment right to bear
arms.
• Do local government have the right to impose
such strict laws concerning guns?
District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)
• Decision
• No!
• In a 5-4 decision, the Court held that the
Second Amendment protects an individual
right to possess a firearm unconnected with
service in a militia, and to use that firearm
for traditionally lawful purposes, such as
self-defense within the home.
Bush v. Gore (2000)
• Facts of the Case:
– Following the closely contested 2000 presidential
election, the Florida Supreme Court ordered that
the Circuit Court in Leon County tabulate by hand
9000 contested ballots from Miami-Dade County.
– It also ordered that every county in Florida must
immediately begin manually recounting all "undervotes" (ballots which did not indicate a vote for
president) because there were enough contested
ballots to place the outcome of the election in
doubt.
– Governor George Bush and his running mate,
Richard Cheney, filed a request for review in the
U.S. Supreme Court and sought an emergency
petition to reverse the Florida Supreme Court's
decision.
Bush v. Gore (2000)
• Questions of Law:
1.Did the Florida Supreme Court
violate Article II Section 1 Clause 2 of
the U.S. Constitution by making new
election law?
2.Do standardless manual recounts
violate the Equal Protection and Due
Process Clauses of the Constitution?
Importance
In a hotly contested, 5-4 decision the Supreme Court
ruled for Florida Governor Jeb Bush
• Yes
Noting that the Equal Protection clause guarantees
individuals that their ballots cannot be devalued by
"later arbitrary and disparate treatment," the opinion
held 7-2 that the Florida Supreme Court's scheme for
recounting ballots was unconstitutional.
2. Yes
Even if the recount was fair in theory, it was unfair in
practice. The record suggested that different
standards were applied from ballot to ballot, precinct
to precinct, and county to county.
Read Your
Chapters!!
(Many) More Supreme
Court cases to come…
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