What Is Federalism

Well you may be asking yourself “what is Federalism?” To keep It short I will just say that it is the power that is shared between the federal and state Governments. We might thig that federalism does not exist but I reality it does. Because of federalism, checks and balances come to play a huge roll in this. As it is mentioned in (Checks & Balances, History,) this system was formed to make sure that neither branch in the government would have more power than the other. This system like we all may know has been divided by three branches, Legislative, Executive and Judicial. For now, I will give you some examples of both states and federal powers.

Federal government has the authority to regulate trade between the states and even with foreign countries. In addition, Feral government has the power to declare for war, in this case it can be WW3 because of the situation that we are going through at this moment. The state powers can vary as they are more independently as a state themselves. But now you may be asking yourself, is there a power the share or are their power all separate? Well the answer is that they share some common powers. A good example is that both the federal and the state have the power to tax.

Now, I know what you might be thinking right now “then why does the United states have this crazy system of federalism.” In our case we must remember that “The U.S fought the revolution war to gain independence from great Britain’s” (Office of the Historian.) After the war was won, the 13 colonies went to in agreement with the U.S so that they can be a strong and united country without having to be rules by a king like they were used too.

In order for this to happen the central government needed to be strong because if it would be too weak, they would have never come into an agreement and maybe until this day those 13 colonies wouldn’t be part of our country. To be more specific because of federalism different courts exist. For Example, there is a federal and state court, I which in most cases we are trialed in the state court unless we commit a high crime or something that is out of hands of the states. Once you are give a citation or you are in court if you read the letter head it states your name Vs. The state of Texas or who ever is trying to convict you to become guilty.

The thing about the constitution is that in a direct sense they founding fathers do not use the word “Federalism.” The things is that the framers originally did not mention anything because they were used as a pillar of hope in order to guide those to actually create a federalist system. To be exact in the article 6 of the constitution, states the supremacy clause, which means that the government has the power over the state governments.

The Constitution allows the national government different powers, but at the same time it prohibits them from doing certain things. Although the constitutions do directly state four major types of power, Enumerated, Inherent, Prohibited and lastly Enumerated. Prohibited, is found in the article 1 section 9, which are powers that prohibit the national government, for example they can suspend the Writ of Habeas Corpus, and even regulate the tax exports. Implied can be found in Article 1, Section 8, This is power that congress has “assumed” in order to better do its job. With implied we can think of when they make regulations of telecommunications, or when they make new highways or even remodel them because they are dangerous to the public. Inherent powers can be described as the powers that congress and the president need so that they can accomplish their work task as members of the house.

An example of inherent power can be when president Obama during his years in office he increased the minimum wage of the workers so that the citizens can live a better life standard (Economic Policy Institute.) Lastly, Enumerated powers are certain powers that is given to congress only by the U.S. As mentioned early this was made so that the future gov, would not try and become a power entity and start another war. In other words, they wanted to become free with out the fear that the government would not become some sort of king (Tenth Amendment.)

In conclusion, Federalism is something that we live on a daily, we just don’t clearly see it, this happens while we are in school and even when we walk outside of school. Teachers for instance has some type of powers towards students. It also works backwards because the school principle can have coercive power towards both the students and the faculty as he or she is the one who “runs the school.

As Theodore-Roosevelt once said, “No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.” (Book Browse.) Even our past Presidents have been respecting this ideal because it is truly what and how it represents us as an entire nation. Not to mention in our countries name that why it states “The United Stated of America” because once a bill comes to effect everyone in the nation becomes effected. Currently there is a need for a change, our President, he has been using his Position as President too have a benefit of defeating his current opponent. Which is why impeachment process is happening because the nation and the house of representatives have seen and demonstrated that he has done some actions that should not be done by any president. It is being seen like he is “Above the law.”

Work Cited

1. BookBrowse. “Why Do We Say No Man Is above the Law?” BookBrowse.com, https://www.bookbrowse.com/expressions/detail/index.cfm/expression_number/617/no-man-is-above-the-law.
2. History.com Editors. “Checks and Balances.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 17 Nov. 2017, https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/checks-and-balances.
3. “The Obama Legacy on Wages.” Economic Policy Institute, https://www.epi.org/blog/the-obama-legacy-on-wages/.
4. “Thirty Enumerated Powers.” Tenth Amendment Center, https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/historical-documents/united-states-constitution/thirty-enumerated-powers/.
5. U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/declaration.

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