Political Science: Federalism in the United States

Political Science
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Political Science
In a federal system, power is shared by the national and state governments. For example, the state of California has its own government. This system of government was created by the founders as they attempted to balance order and liberty. The founders also identified a few reasons to come up with this system of government. One reason is to allow more participation in politics. The people would be allowed to vote for the leaders in the state and the national leaders. This means they would be more represented.
Another reason is to use the states as the laboratories for new ideas and new programs. As more people were elected in government, they would give room for more ideas and programs. The founders also had the intention to avoid tyranny. Federalism prevents one person that takes control of a state to take control of the federal government (Boyd, 1997).
The advantage of this system is, for example, if the California state government introduces programs in their state and they do well, other states are at liberty to copy from the state so that the program can benefit most of the American states (Boyd, 1997). In addition, in case a government makes a disastrous decision, it will only be a catastrophe for that specific state. The central government, however, remains as the main government in this system. It is common for the state government and the central government not to agree on some issues (Donald, 1985). The constitution limits the authority of the federal government over the state and stresses out that the state government will act as the check if the central government.
In the US constitution, the separation of powers is clearly stated. This is to reduce the concentration of power in the central government. The central government is thus divided into three branches and creates the system of “checks and bala...