Constitutional Principles
Federalism
● Definition:
● A system of government in which power and authority
is shared or divided between the national government
and state governments
● However, the Constitution is the “supreme law of the
land” and that state laws cannot trump national laws.
Types of Powers
● Concurrent powers
Powers shared by the national and state governments
● Enumerated/Expressed powers
Powers directly given to the Federal government in the Constitution
● Reserved powers
Powers left for the states (10th Amendment)
● Inherent powers
Powers that belong to the national government because it is a national
government
● Implied Powers
Power gained from an expressed power, but is not itself in the
constitution
Dual Federalism
● Separate but equally powerful branches and levels of
government
● State and National levels have a lot of power to balance each
other out
● “Layer Cake” Federalism
Cooperative Federalism
● All the levels of government working together cooperatively to
achieve and solve common problems.
● Powers overlap
● “Marble Cake” Federalism
Creative Federalism
● Shift power towards the national government by
bypassing state governments
● State power weakened
● Grants (government money) used to force the
state’s into following the national government’s
wishes
● Unfunded mandates- A certain order from the
national government. No funds given to aid the
states in achieving the requirement.
New Federalism (Devolution)
● Power given to states in an effort to even out the
balance of strength between the national and state
governments.
● Block grants-grants giving to state governments
with little restrictions on how to handle the money
Fiscal Federalism
● Usage of funds from the federal government to the states in
order to support a national program
● Using Categorical Grants
● Categorical Grants - national government gives states money
with requirements attached
Progressive Federalism (Laboratories)
● Allows the states to have greater control over issues normally
reserved for the national government
● States have been able to enforce more regulations on
government decrees
● Informs the national government on which type of changes are
most effective, and can allow the national government to tailor
their own laws to make them, in turn, more effective based off of
what the different states discovered
● Laboratories of Democracy
Overview Using “Math”!
● Dual
State=National
● Cooperative
State+National
● Creative
State<National
● New Federalism (Devolution)
State>National
● Fiscal Federalism
National $$$→State
● Progressive Federalism
National→State++→National
Separation
of Powers
● Definition:
● The US Constitution’s granting of specific powers to each branch of
government, while making each branch partly dependent on the others
for carrying out its duties.
● This gives us our “three branches of government”
● Legislative = Congress = makes the laws
● Executive = President & Bureaucracy = enforces the laws
● Judicial = Supreme Court = interprets the laws
● Works in conjunction with…
Checks and Balances
● Definition:
● A principle of the American governmental system where
each branch of government has the ability to limit the
power of the other branches.
What is the underlying purpose of all
three of these principles?
● Federalism
● Giving some powers to states or the national government should
prevent either from having too much power.
● Separation of Powers
● Giving some parts of the government control of different duties
limits the ability of the government to become tyrannical.
● Checks and Balances
● Giving the ability of each branch to limit the other branches allows
them to make sure one branch does not become too powerful.
Federalism in Real Life