Federalism
In the United States, federalism is one of the most significant and innovative concepts in the constitutional systems. Federalism involves division of powers in diverse levels of government in the United States. This includes the national government and the state government. The state’s government existed first in America, and then they created the national government. In many cases, these two governments work together, and federalism maintains powers between them when it comes to policymaking. However, the U.S. Constitution has been stuck in the struggle and still debates on the appropriate roles between the national and state governments. Federalism has therefore been important, particularly in attending to the problems of the Americas modern constitutional design. Moreover, federalism is viewed as the best context of integrating ethnic groups, diverse nations or even combatant parties that might have fear of being controlled by a powerful center. Accordingly, the paper explores the significance of federalism in the United States.
Federation has been significant in the United States’ political culture. The U.S. government consist of various systems and ideas, which when joined together develop a Democratic government. One of this idea is the idea of political culture and federalism. Political culture can be characterized as the way regarding how political life is performed by the government. There are always different philosophies that lead the political subcultures, and every individual can be having a different belief on how the government should be carrying out things. However, the U.S. political culture has been working within federalism. Every state has its own rank of the legal autonomy as well as political significance. Although a state is not a supreme body, it does not carry out functions nor practice power that is supposed to be practiced by the other levels of government. Furthermore, the power between the state and the national government was divided by the constitution, and the national government is largely extended and get involved in nearly all aspects of American citizens. Despite the expansion of the national powers, the states continue to be a significant political center of the government activities. Federalism has enshrined and moderated the political culture, and today the relationship between state and national government is strong and has also centralized the U.S government.
Federalism has also been substantial in restructuring the United States constitutional systems. The modern constitutionalism in the United States spread differences between the unitary and national states and this became evident in the constitutional and other spheres. However, the unitary states wanted only one constitution in all states since that was the only way they could have officially denominated units of political organization as well as a government. On the other hand, the national systems thought this idea was a lesser or greater evaluation of coequality within the governments and political system. Therefore, each of the state and national systems had its own constitution that reflected the rights of people who established a particular government. Furthermore, in the original American constitutions, there were no principles set to divide local constitutional standing, and all issues were left to the state governments. First, federalism led to the constitutional revision in the constitutional system, which took a formal ration for calling an exceptional constitutional convention. The existence of federalism, therefore, led to an establishment of a stronger state autonomy and today, the state’s government covers commercial law, family law and also traffic law. This being an obvious proof that the states have right to implement laws in itself. Subsequently, both the national and state systems have been serving federal polities well through the amendment of the constitution.
Furthermore, federalism provides a substantial obstacle for dictatorship in the United States. Since the implementation of this system, different levels of government together with their assigned functions create firewalls against the high spread of activism as well as radical political mutation. However, the national government has the powers to check any transformation as it happens from state to state. On the other side, if the national government expels a particular political party, the party can still support the state government, inhibiting political annihilation. Moreover, federalism supports the union without interfering with the state identity. Matters can be discussed in the state system before they can be taken to the national level but since not all the states will acknowledge the conclusions made by the national government, individual states can compare their point of view before proceeding to the national level. What’s more, with federalism, the conclusions made by the states can be evaluated before being used by the national system. Thus, this gives the states a chance to carry out a reform as well as to take desired actions towards the national government. Also, federalism provides an obstacle to minimizing the possible ways in which original legislation can be destroyed. To explain this, when a state system policy has negative impacts, they affect the national government at a low level.
During the ancient time, it was believed that democracy was only possible for the small states, in which resolutions were made through one-on-one discussions. Nevertheless, federalism came as an institutional solution to all the issues associated with states scale and diversity. The establishment of representative institutions enhanced democracy to be exercised on the scale of nation-state although the issues of the scale still continued. The more the geographical distance grows between the government and the citizens, the more it becomes difficult for the people’s grievances to be heard. This issues can result in unworkable and inappropriate policies that can destroy the political system’s reputation. Nonetheless, federalism helps solve this issues and enable significant powers to be practiced at the state level. Moreover, federalism offers a system where religious, cultural and ethnic communities, as well as their desires, are recognized. By guaranteeing independence to such people, federalism allows them to practice extensive self-government through the state, regional or provincial levels while still partaking certain functions with other societies through the national or federal system. However, federalism is significant when these groups are territorially concerted. Also, when demands for democracy are satisfied, the federal constitution can be able to prevent conflicts, protect minorities as well as minimize pressure for secession.
Federalism is a system where powers are divided between the national and states government. Federalism has been significant in the United States because there has been an extensive distribution of powers and the state and local systems have been contributing to the nation’s success. Moreover, federalism allows people to hold political office, and also permit diversity where state government can handle state and local matters. Also, federalism provides an obstacle to minimizing the possible ways in which original legislation can be destroyed. This system permits the state government to practice their own policies and therefore helps in managing national conflicts.