What is Federalism? - Definition & Factors of U.S. Adoption
By: Ashley Dugger
The Government we have today in America is based off of Federalism. "Federalism is a method of government that allows two or more entities to share control over the same geographic region." (Dugger). It is also a system of government. It allows each of the people in The United States to be subject to the laws of the city, country, state and the Federal government. In this system, the power is divided between the national government and the other government units. It is divided in America, by the state and local governments. It is different from a unitary government where the government is one and it i also different from a confederation which is an "association of independent government units" (Dugger). Originally, the United States was a confederation where "each of the states operated separately and independently from one another"(Dugger), by the Articles of Confederation. Now, we have the constitution that states that we are a federal government instead of going by the Articles of Confederation.
Constitutional Topic: Federalism
By: U.S Constitution.net
When the United States first came about, the government was under the British Unitary System. Soon breaking off from the British, the founding fathers then created federalism through the Constitution. "Federalism in the United States has evolved quite a bit since it was first implemented in 1787. In that time, two major kinds of federalism have dominated political theory." (net). The first is dual federalism. In this, it "holds that the federal government and the state governments are co-equals, each sovereign." (net). With that, it states that a very large amount of power goes to the states and the federal government is limited. The second, "cooperative federalism, asserts that the national government is supreme over the states" (net). In today's world, we do not use dual federalism.