Chapter 3: American Federalism

56. What is marble cake federalism?

"The American form of government is often, but erroneously, symbolized by a three-layer cake. A far more accurate image is the rainbow or marble cake, characterized by an inseparable mingling of differently colored ingredients, the colors appearing in vertical and diagonal strands and unexpected whirls. As colors are mixed in the marble cake, so functions are mixed in the American federal system."

9. What is a unitary system?

). In contrast to federalism, a unitary system makes subnational governments dependent on the national government, where significant authority is concentrated. Before

2. How does American federalism balance the forces of centralization and decentralization?

). In contrast to federalism, a unitary system makes subnational governments dependent on the national government, where significant authority is concentrated. Before the late 1990s, the United Kingdom's unitary system was centralized to the extent that the national government held the most important levers of power. Since then, power has been gradually decentralized through a process of devolution, leading to the creation of regional governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland as well as the delegation of specific responsibilities to them. Other democratic countries with unitary systems, such as France, Japan, and Sweden, have followed a similar path of decentralization.

75. What are the advantages and disadvantages of federalism?

,that it promotes policy innovation and political participation and accommodates diversity of opinion.because our federal system creates two levels of government with the capacity to take action, failure to attain a desired policy goal at one level can be offset by successfully securing the support of elected representatives at another level. Thus, individuals, groups, and social movements are encouraged to actively participate and help shape public policy.The system of checks and balances in our political system often prevents the federal government from imposing uniform policies across the country. As a result, states and local communities have the latitude to address policy issues based on the specific needs and interests of their citizens. The diversity of public viewpoints across states is manifested by differences in the way states handle access to abortion, distribution of alcohol, gun control, and social welfare benefits, for example.---- DISADVANTAGES----race-to-the-bottom dynamics, Stark economic differences across states have a profound effect on the well-being of citizens,The economic strategy of using race-to-the-bottom tactics in order to compete with other states in attracting new business growth also carries a social cost. For example, workers' safety and pay can suffer as workplace regulations are lifted, and the reduction in payroll taxes for employers has led a number of states to end up with underfunded unemployment insurance programs.The federal design of our Constitution and the system of checks and balances has jeopardized or outright blocked federal responses to important national issues (Roosevelt). diffuclty of taking action on issues of national importance

39. What was the constitutional significance of Gibbons v. Ogden?

1824. In Gibbons v. Ogden, the court had to interpret the commerce clause of Article I, Section 8; specifically, it had to determine whether the federal government had the sole authority to regulate the licensing of steamboats operating between New York and New Jersey.21 Aaron Ogden, who had obtained an exclusive license from New York State to operate steamboat ferries between New York City and New Jersey, sued Thomas Gibbons, who was operating ferries along the same route under a coasting license issued by the federal government. Gibbons lost in New York state courts and appealed. Chief Justice Marshall delivered a two-part ruling in favor of Gibbons that strengthened the power of the national government. First, interstate commerce was interpreted broadly to mean "commercial intercourse" among states, thus allowing Congress to regulate navigation. Second, because the federal Licensing Act of 1793, which regulated coastal commerce, was a constitutional exercise of Congress's authority under the commerce clause, federal law trumped the New York State license-monopoly law that had granted Ogden an exclusive steamboat operating license. As Marshall pointed out, "the acts of New York must yield to the law of Congress."

27. What is the most important source of state revenue?

50 percent of revenue came from taxes, while 30 percent consisted of federal grants.

34. Did Alexander Hamilton favor or oppose the establishment of a national bank? Why?

Alexander Hamilton championed legislative efforts to create a publicly chartered bank. For Hamilton, the establishment of the Bank of the United States was fully within Congress's authority, and he hoped the bank would foster economic development, print and circulate paper money, and provide loans to the government.

63. What is creeping categorization?

Another noteworthy characteristic of block grants is that their flexibility has been undermined over time as a result of creeping categorization, a process in which the national government places new administrative requirements on state and local governments or supplants block grants with new categorical grants.---Among the more common measures used to restrict block grants' programmatic flexibility are set-asides (i.e., requiring a certain share of grant funds to be designated for a specific purpose) and cost ceilings (i.e., placing a cap on funding other purposes).

22. What is the Full Faith and Credit Clause?

Article IV, Section 1, referred to as the full faith and credit clause or the comity clause, requires the states to accept court decisions, public acts, and contracts of other states. Thus, an adoption certificate or driver's license issued in one state is valid in any other state. The

60. What are block grants?

Block grants come with less stringent federal administrative conditions and provide recipients more flexibility over how to spend grant funds. Examples of block grants include the Workforce Investment Act program, which provides state and local agencies money to help youths and adults obtain skill sets that will lead to better-paying jobs, and the Surface Transportation Program, which helps state and local governments maintain and improve highways, bridges, tunnels, sidewalks, and bicycle paths.

62. Why do many Republicans want to convert categorical grants such as Medicaid, into block grants?

Block grants have been championed for their cost-cutting effects. By eliminating uncapped federal funding, as the TANF issue illustrates, the national government can reverse the escalating costs of federal grant programs. This point was not lost on Paul Ryan (R-WI), former chair of the House Budget Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, who, during his tenure as Speaker of the House from October 2015 to January 2019, tried multiple times but without success to convert Medicaid into a block grant, a reform he estimated could save the federal government upwards of $732 billion over ten years.

58. What are categorical grants? What are some examples?

Categorical grants are federal transfers formulated to limit recipients' discretion in the use of funds and subject them to strict administrative criteria that guide project selection, performance, and financial oversight, among other things. These grants also often require some commitment of matching funds. Medicaid and the food stamp program are examples of categorical grants.

67. Which functions are carried out by the national government? Which are carried out by state and local governments?

Certain functions clearly belong to the federal government, the state governments, and local governments. National security is a federal matter, the issuance of licenses is a state matter, and garbage collection is a local matter. One aspect of competitive federalism today is that some policy issues, such as immigration and the marital rights of gays and lesbians, have been redefined as the roles that states and the federal government play in them have changed. Another aspect of competitive federalism is that interest groups seeking to change the status quo can take a policy issue up to the federal government or down to the states if they feel it is to their advantage. Interest groups have used this strategy to promote their views on such issues as abortion, gun control, and the legal drinking age.

48. What was cooperative federalism? What major event led to its development?

Cooperative federalism was born of necessity and lasted well into the twentieth century as the national and state governments each found it beneficial. Under this model, both levels of government coordinated their actions to solve national problems, such as the Great Depression and the civil rights struggle of the following decades. In contrast to dual federalism, it erodes the jurisdictional boundaries between the states and national government, leading to a blending of layers as in a marble cake. The era of cooperative federalism contributed to the gradual incursion of national authority into the jurisdictional domain of the states, as well as the expansion of the national government's power in concurrent policy areas.

29. How did the Great Recession affect tax revenues?

During the Great Recession, tax receipts dropped as business activities slowed, consumer spending dropped, and family incomes decreased due to layoffs or work-hour reductions. To offset the adverse effects of the recession on the states and local governments, federal grants increased by roughly 33 percent during this period.

32. What is the largest expenditure category for state governments?

Educational expenditures constitute a major category for both. However, whereas the states spend comparatively more than local governments on university education, local governments spend even more on elementary and secondary education. That said, nationwide, state funding for public higher education has declined as a percentage of university revenues; this is primarily because states have taken in lower amounts of sales taxes as internet commerce has increased.And while state governments allocate comparatively more funds to public welfare programs, such as health care, income support, and highways, both local and state governments spend roughly similar amounts on judicial and legal services and correctional services.

33. What is the largest expenditure category for local governments?

Educational expenditures constitute a major category for both. However, whereas the states spend comparatively more than local governments on university education, local governments spend even more on elementary and secondary education. That said, nationwide, state funding for public higher education has declined as a percentage of university revenues; this is primarily because states have taken in lower amounts of sales taxes as internet commerce has increased.Local governments allocate more funds to police protection, fire protection, housing and community development, and public utilities such as water, sewage, and electricity.

24. What is the significance of the Sixteenth Amendment?

First, the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913 authorized Congress to impose income taxes without apportioning it among the states on the basis of population, a burdensome provision that Article I, Section 9, had imposed on the national government.13 With this change, the federal government's ability to raise revenue significantly increased and so did its ability to spend.

25. What is the most important source of federal revenue?

For the federal government, 47 percent of 2013 revenue came from individual income taxes and 34 percent from payroll taxes, which combine Social Security tax and Medicare tax.

26. What services do motor fuel taxes finance in most states?

Fuel tax revenue is typically used to finance state highway transportation projects, although some states do use it to fund non-transportation projects.

59. What are the largest federal programs?

Health-related grant programs such as Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) represented more than half of total federal grant expenses.

15. What is the significance of the commerce clause?

However, the open-ended construction of elastic clause has enabled the national government to expand its authority beyond what is specified in the Constitution, a development also motivated by the expansive interpretation of the commerce clause, which empowers the federal government to regulate interstate economic transactions.

68. Are the issues of immigration and marriage addressed by the federal government or state governments?

Immigration and marriage equality have not been the subject of much contention between states and the federal government until recent decades. Before that, it was understood that the federal government handled immigration and states determined the legality of same-sex marriage. This understanding of exclusive responsibilities has changed; today both levels of government play roles in these two policy areas.

69. What is immigration federalism?

Immigration federalism describes the gradual movement of states into the immigration policy domain.56 Since the late 1990s, states have asserted a right to make immigration policy on the grounds that they are enforcing, not supplanting, the nation's immigration laws, and they are exercising their jurisdictional authority by restricting undocumented immigrants' access to education, health care, and welfare benefits, areas that fall under the states' responsibilities. In 2005, twenty-five states had enacted a total of thirty-nine laws related to immigration; by 2014, forty-three states and Washington, DC, had passed a total of 288 immigration-related laws and resolutions.57

46. What was the significance of United States v. E. C. Knight?

In 1895, in United States v. E. C. Knight, the Supreme Court ruled that the national government lacked the authority to regulate manufacturing.28 The case came about when the government, using its regulatory power under the Sherman Act, attempted to override American Sugar's purchase of four sugar refineries, which would give the company a commanding share of the industry. Distinguishing between commerce among states and the production of goods, the court argued that the national government's regulatory authority applied only to commercial activities. If manufacturing activities fell within the purview of the commerce clause of the Constitution, then "comparatively little of business operations would be left for state control," the court argued.

70. What is the significance of Obergefell v. Hodges?

In 2012, in Arizona v. United States, the Supreme Court affirmed federal supremacy on immigration.60 The court struck down three of the four central provisions of the Arizona law—namely, those allowing police officers to arrest an undocumented immigrant without a warrant if they had probable cause to think he or she had committed a crime that could lead to deportation, making it a crime to seek a job without proper immigration documentation, and making it a crime to be in Arizona without valid immigration papers. The court upheld the "show me your papers" provision, which authorizes police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest who they suspect is an undocumented immigrant.61 However, in letting this provision stand, the court warned Arizona and other states with similar laws that they could face civil rights lawsuits if police officers applied it based on racial profiling.62 All in all, Justice Anthony Kennedy's opinion embraced an expansive view of the U.S. government's authority to regulate immigration, describing it as broad and undoubted. That authority derived from the legislative power of Congress to "establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization," enumerated in the Constitution.

47. What was the significance of Lochner v. New York?

In Lochner v. New York, the Supreme Court ruled this state regulation that capped work hours unconstitutional, on the grounds that it violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.29 In other words, the right to sell and buy labor is a "liberty of the individual" safeguarded by the Constitution, the court asserted. The federal government also took up the issue of working conditions, but that case resulted in the same outcome as in the Lochner case.

42. How did the Civil War and its aftermath affect the relative balance of power between the national government and the states?

In sum, after the Civil War the power balance shifted toward the national government, a movement that had begun several decades before with McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) and Gibbons v. Odgen (1824).----The period between 1819 and the 1860s demonstrated that the national government sought to establish its role within the newly created federal design, which in turn often provoked the states to resist as they sought to protect their interests. With the exception of the Civil War, the Supreme Court settled the power struggles between the states and national government. From a historical perspective, the national supremacy principle introduced during this period did not so much narrow the states' scope of constitutional authority as restrict their encroachment on national powers

44. Why did Congress enact the Interstate Commerce Act?

Industrialization changed the socioeconomic landscape of the United States. One of its adverse effects was the concentration of market power. Because there was no national regulatory supervision to ensure fairness in market practices, collusive behavior among powerful firms emerged in several industries.26 To curtail widespread anticompetitive practices in the railroad industry, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, which created the Interstate Commerce Commission.

36. What was the constitutional significance of McCulloch v. Maryland?

James McCulloch, an agent for the Baltimore branch of the Second Bank, refused to pay a tax that Maryland had imposed on all out-of-state chartered banks. The standoff raised two constitutional questions: Did Congress have the authority to charter a national bank? Were states allowed to tax federal property? In McCulloch v. Maryland, Chief Justice John Marshall (Figure 3.8) argued that Congress could create a national bank even though the Constitution did not expressly authorize it.20 Under the necessary and proper clause of Article I, Section 8, the Supreme Court asserted that Congress could establish "all means which are appropriate" to fulfill "the legitimate ends" of the Constitution. In other words, the bank was an appropriate instrument that enabled the national government to carry out several of its enumerated powers, such as regulating interstate commerce, collecting taxes, and borrowing money.

41. Which president is associated with the Emancipation Proclamation?

Lincoln

52. What government programs were enacted during the administration of President Lyndon Johnson?

Medicaid (which provides medical assistance to the indigent), Medicare (which provides health insurance to the elderly and disabled), and school nutrition programs were created. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965), the Higher Education Act (1965), and the Head Start preschool program (1965) were established to expand educational opportunities and equality (Figure 3.11). The Clean Air Act (1965), the Highway Safety Act (1966), and the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (1966) promoted environmental and consumer protection. Finally, laws were passed to promote urban renewal, public housing development, and affordable housing. In addition to these Great Society programs, the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965) gave the federal government effective tools to promote civil rights equality across the country.

71. What is MADD? What issue is its foremost concern?

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was established in 1980 by a woman whose thirteen-year-old daughter had been killed by a drunk driver. The organization lobbied state legislators to raise the drinking age and impose tougher penalties, but without success. States with lower drinking ages had an economic interest in maintaining them because they lured youths from neighboring states with restricted consumption laws. So MADD decided to redirect its lobbying efforts at Congress, hoping to find sympathetic representatives willing to take action. In 1984, the federal government passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act (NMDAA), a crosscutting mandate that gradually reduced federal highway grant money to any state that failed to increase the legal age for alcohol purchase and possession to twenty-one. After losing a legal battle against the NMDAA, all states were in compliance by 1988.

65. What is a crosscutting mandate?

One type of mandate threatens civil and criminal penalties for state and local authorities that fail to comply with them across the board in all programs, while another provides for the suspension of federal grant money if the mandate is not followed. These types of mandates are commonly referred to as crosscutting mandates. Failure to fully comply with crosscutting mandates can result in punishments that normally include reduction of or suspension of federal grants, prosecution of officials, fines, or some combination of these penalties. If only one requirement is not met, state or local governments may not get any money at all.

49. Which president was associated with the New Deal?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

50. Which president was associated with the court packing plan?

Roosevelt

31. What are the largest expenditure categories of the federal government?

Social Security (24 percent of the total budget); Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and marketplace subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (24 percent); and defense and international security assistance (18 percent).

17. What are concurrent powers?

Some of the states' reserved powers are no longer exclusively within state domain, however. For example, since the 1940s, the federal government has also engaged in administering health, safety, income security, education, and welfare to state residents. The boundary between intrastate and interstate commerce has become indefinable as a result of broad interpretation of the commerce clause. Shared and overlapping powers have become an integral part of contemporary U.S. federalism. These concurrent powers range from taxing, borrowing, and making and enforcing laws to establishing court systems

18. What is a writ of habeas corpus?

Specifically, the government cannot suspend the writ of habeas corpus, which enables someone in custody to petition a judge to determine whether that person's detention is legal;bill of attainder, or enact an ex post facto law

74. Why are states sometimes called "laboratories of democracy?"

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis observed in 1932 that "a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country."69 What Brandeis meant was that states could harness their constitutional authority to engage in policy innovations that might eventually be diffused to other states and at the national level. For example, a number of New Deal breakthroughs, such as child labor laws, were inspired by state policies. Prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, several states had already granted women the right to vote. California has led the way in establishing standards for fuel emissions and other environmental policies (Figure 3.18). Recently, the health insurance exchanges run by Connecticut, Kentucky, Rhode Island, and Washington have served as models for other states seeking to improve the performance of their exchanges.

16. What is the Tenth Amendment?

The Tenth Amendment affirms the states' reserved powers: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

66. Why does Congress enact so many unfunded mandates?

The continued use of unfunded mandates clearly contradicts new federalism's call for giving states and local governments more flexibility in carrying out national goals. The temptation to use them appears to be difficult for the federal government to resist, however, as the UMRA's poor track record illustrates. This is because mandates allow the federal government to fulfill its national priorities while passing most of the cost to the states, an especially attractive strategy for national lawmakers trying to cut federal spending.54 Some leading federalism scholars have used the term coercive federalism to capture this aspect of contemporary U.S. federalism.55 In other words, Washington has been as likely to use the stick of mandates as the carrot of grants to accomplish its national objectives. As a result, there have been more instances of confrontational interactions between the states and the federal government.

12. Where are the enumerated powers located in the Constitution?

The enumerated powers of the national legislature are found in Article I, Section 8. These powers define the jurisdictional boundaries within which the federal government has authority. In seeking not to replay the problems that plagued the young country under the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution's framers granted Congress specific powers that ensured its authority over national and foreign affairs.

28. What is the most important source of local revenue?

The most important sources of revenue for local governments in 2013 were taxes, federal and state grants, and service charges. For

61. Which are more common—categorical grants or block grants? Why?

The national government has greatly preferred using categorical grants to transfer funds to state and local authorities because this type of grant gives them more control and discretion in how the money is spent.----One reason is that elected officials who sponsor these grants can take credit for their positive outcomes (e.g., clean rivers, better-performing schools, healthier children, a secure homeland) since elected officials, not state officials, formulate the administrative standards that lead to the results. Another reason is that categorical grants afford federal officials greater command over grant program performance. A common criticism leveled against block grants is that they lack mechanisms to hold state and local administrators accountable for outcomes, a reproach the Obama administration made about the Community Services Block Grant program. Finally, once categorical grants have been established, vested interests in Congress and the federal bureaucracy seek to preserve them. The legislators who enact them and the federal agencies that implement them invest heavily in defending them, ensuring their continuation.

57. What are federal grants?

The national government has used grants to influence state actions as far back as the Articles of Confederation when it provided states with land grants.At the turn of the twentieth century, cash grants replaced land grants as the main form of federal intergovernmental transfers and have become a central part of modern federalism.

6. What powers does the national government exercise? What powers are exercised by the states?

The national government is responsible for handling matters that affect the country as a whole, for example, defending the nation against foreign threats and promoting national economic prosperity.Subnational, or state governments, are responsible for matters that lie within their regions, which include ensuring the well-being of their people by administering education, health care, public safety, and other public services.

73. What is the significance of Roe v. Wade?

The strategy anti-abortion advocates have used in recent years is another example of venue shopping. In their attempts to limit abortion rights in the wake of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision making abortion legal nationwide, anti-abortion advocates initially targeted Congress in hopes of obtaining restrictive legislation.67 Lack of progress at the national level prompted them to shift their focus to state legislators, where their advocacy efforts have been more successful. By 2015, for example, thirty-eight states required some form of parental involvement in a minor's decision to have an abortion, forty-six states allowed individual health-care providers to refuse to participate in abortions, and thirty-two states prohibited the use of public funds to carry out an abortion except when the woman's life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. While 31 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age resided in one of the thirteen states that had passed restrictive abortion laws in 2000, by 2013, about 56 percent of such women resided in one of the twenty-seven states where abortion is restricted.68

72. What is venue shopping?

The term venue shopping refers to a strategy in which interest groups select the level and branch of government (legislature, judiciary, or executive) they calculate will be most advantageous for them.66 If one institutional venue proves unreceptive to an advocacy group's policy goal, as state legislators were to MADD, the group will attempt to steer its issue to a more responsive venue.

45. What was the Sherman Antitrust Act?

Three years later, national regulatory capacity was broadened by the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which made it illegal to monopolize or attempt to monopolize and conspire in restraining commerce (Figure 03_02_Commerce).

13. What are some examples of the enumerated powers?

To provide for the general welfare of the populace, it can tax, borrow money, regulate interstate and foreign commerce, and protect property rights, for example. To provide for the common defense of the people, the federal government can raise and support armies and declare war. Furthermore, national integration and unity are fostered with the government's powers over the coining of money, naturalization, postal services, and other responsibilities.

37. Why did the Supreme Court rule in McCulloch v. Maryland that Congress has authority to charter a national bank?

Under the necessary and proper clause of Article I, Section 8, the Supreme Court asserted that Congress could establish "all means which are appropriate" to fulfill "the legitimate ends" of the Constitution. In other words, the bank was an appropriate instrument that enabled the national government to carry out several of its enumerated powers, such as regulating interstate commerce, collecting taxes, and borrowing money.

64. What are unfunded mandates?

Unfunded mandates are federal laws and regulations that impose obligations on state and local governments without fully compensating them for the administrative costs they incur.

38. What is the doctrine of implied powers? In which case was it established?

^^^^^^^^ granting Congress a vast source of discretionary power to achieve its constitutional responsibilities.

4. What is federalism?

an institutional arrangement that creates two relatively autonomous levels of government, each possessing the capacity to act directly on behalf of the people with the authority granted to it by the national constitution.

1. How does federalism divide power?

apportions power between two levels of government: national and subnational.with both levels being elected by the people and each level assigned different functions. The national government is responsible for handling matters that affect the country as a whole, for example, defending the nation against foreign threats and promoting national economic prosperity. Subnational, or state governments, are responsible for matters that lie within their regions, which include ensuring the well-being of their people by administering education, health care, public safety, and other public services. By definition, a system like this requires that different levels of government cooperate, because the institutions at each level form an interacting network.

54. What was the goal of New Federalism?

attempts were made to reverse the process of nationalization—that is, to restore states' prominence in policy areas into which the federal government had moved in the past.

55. What is devolution?

authority to states

76. What is the race-to-the-bottom dynamic?

economic disparities across states, race-to-the-bottom dynamics (i.e., states compete to attract business by lowering taxes and regulations),

7. How are conflicts between the national government and the states resolved?

government. In the United States, conflicts between states and the federal government are adjudicated by federal courts, with the U.S. Supreme Court being the final arbiter.

3. How does American democracy divide governmental power?

like the United States, use a combination of both structures. The first and more common mechanism shares power among three branches of government—the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. The second, federalism, apportions power between two levels of government: national and subnational. In the United States, the term federal government refers to the government at the national level, while the term states means governments at the subnational level.

23. What is the Privileges and Immunities Clause?

of Article IV asserts that states are prohibited from discriminating against out-of-staters by denying them such guarantees as access to courts, legal protection, property rights, and travel rights.

14. What is the elastic clause?

or the necessary and proper cause, enables Congress "to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying" out its constitutional responsibilities. While the enumerated powers define the policy areas in which the national government has authority, the elastic clause allows it to create the legal means to fulfill those responsibilities.

19. What is a bill of attainder?

pass a bill of attainder, a legislative action declaring someone guilty without a trial;

53. What was New Federalism? With which presidents was it most closely associated?

past. New federalism is premised on the idea that the decentralization of policies enhances administrative efficiency, reduces overall public spending, and improves policy outcomes. During the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon (1969-1974) and Ronald Reagan (1981-1989),

10. What is devolution?

power has been gradually decentralized through a process of devolution, leading to the creation of regional governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland as well as the delegation of specific responsibilities to them.-- basically decentralized

21. What are the main provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment?

prohibits the states from denying citizens the rights to which they are entitled by the Constitution, due process of law, or the equal protection of the laws.

30. What was the purpose of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?

provided immediate economic-crisis management assistance such as helping local and state economies ride out the Great Recession and shoring up the country's banking sector. A total of $274.7 billion in grants, contracts, and loans was allocated to state and local governments under the ARRA.16 The bulk of the stimulus funds apportioned to state and local governments was used to create and protect existing jobs through public works projects and to fund various public welfare programs such as unemployment insurance.

11. What were the main drawbacks of the Articles of Confederation?

states were sovereign and powerful while the national government was subordinate and weak. Because states were reluctant to give up any of their power, the national government lacked authority in the face of challenges such as servicing the war debt, ending commercial disputes among states, negotiating trade agreements with other countries, and addressing popular uprisings that were sweeping the country. As the brief American experience with confederation clearly shows, the main drawback with this system of government is that it maximizes regional self-rule at the expense of effective national governance.

35. Did Thomas Jefferson favor or oppose the establishment of a national bank? Why?

staunchly opposed Hamilton's plan on the constitutional grounds that the national government had no authority to create such an instrument,

8. Do states have influence on the governmental decisions of the national government? How?

subnational governments are always represented in the upper house of the national legislature, enabling regional interests to influence national lawmaking.5 In the American federal system, the U.S. Senate functions as a territorial body by representing the fifty states: Each state elects two senators to ensure equal representation regardless of state population differences. Thus, federal laws are shaped in part by state interests, which senators convey to the federal policymaking process.

40. What was the constitutional significance of Dred Scott v. Sandford?

the Supreme Court ruled that the national government lacked the authority to ban slavery in the territories.24 But the election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860 led eleven southern states to secede from the United States because they believed the new president would challenge the institution of slavery. What was initially a conflict to preserve the Union became a conflict to end slavery when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, freeing all slaves in the rebellious states. The defeat of the South had a huge impact on the balance of power between the states and the national government in two important ways. First, the Union victory put an end to the right of states to secede and to challenge legitimate national laws. Second, Congress imposed several conditions for readmitting former Confederate states into the Union; among them was ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. In sum, after the Civil War the power balance shifted toward the national government, a movement that had begun several decades before with McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) and Gibbons v. Odgen (1824).

51. What programs did government adopt during the New Deal era?

the Supreme Court ruled the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 constitutional, asserting that Congress can use its authority under the commerce clause to regulate both manufacturing activities and labor-management relations. The New Deal changed the relationship Americans had with the national government. Before the Great Depression, the government offered little in terms of financial aid, social benefits, and economic rights. After the New Deal, it provided old-age pensions (Social Security), unemployment insurance, agricultural subsidies, protections for organizing in the workplace, and a variety of other public services created during Roosevelt's administration.

43. What is dual federalism?

the states and national government exercise exclusive authority in distinctly delineated spheres of jurisdiction.

5. What are the characteristics of federal systems?

two levels of gov, written natioanl constitution, allocate legislative judicial and excecutive authority to the two levels so that each have autonomy, national courts resolve sisputes between levels and departments of gov, subnational govs are always represented in the upper house - enabling regional interests to influence national law making

20. What is an ex post factor law?

which criminalizes an act retroactively.