Federalism is one of the most important aspects of American government. Although roughly half of world governments operate with some type of federalist structure, the United States’ setup is much more nuanced and hybridized than those of other nations.
What is Federalism?
Briefly, federalism is a style of government that combines central and regional forms of government. In the U.S., the central form is the federal government, which consists of bodies elected and appointed that have national oversight, and the regional forms are the state and territorial governments. The powers are intended to be divided, each with their own authorities and no one level of government having absolute power over the other.
Johannes Althusius (1563-1638) and Montesquieu (1689-1755) are considered the fathers of federalism. Althusius was a German political philosopher whose ideas led to the development of federalism and the concept of subsidiarity, the idea that social and political issues should be dealt with at the most local or intimate level. Montesquieu was a French judge and political philosopher whose principles not only led to the concept of separation of powers throughout the world, but also directly influenced the American Founding Fathers during the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.
In early U.S. history, the concept of federalism pertained to the preference of a stronger central government. The Federalist Party held this stance, while the Anti-Federalist Party advocated for a weaker central government. Today, those with federalist ideologies tend to advocate for limited powers of the central government, more in line with what the Founding Fathers had intended.
The United States implements federalism through a bicameral legislature, with “bicameral” meaning “two houses.” The U.S. House of Representatives represents the population proportionally, with the more populous states receiving more congressional districts, and the smaller states receiving less. California has the most districts – fifty-two – while six states have an at-large congressional district, one that contains the entire state due to small populations: Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming. New York is the fourth-largest state by population and it currently has twenty-six congressional districts. The House is usually referred to as the lower chamber. With 435 representatives, the importance of immediate involvement in social and cultural issues within each district is highly stressed, as is the importance of retail politics, wherein citizens expect to regularly see and speak with the officials they elect.
The U.S. Senate is the other house in American government, often referred to as the upper chamber. Here, all fifty states are represented equally, with each state receiving two Senators.
Until the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, U.S. Senators were elected by the state legislature. State representatives were seen as more in touch with state issues and were easily accessible by their constituents. During the Progressive Era, Oregon utilized the “Oregon System,” wherein Senate candidates were chosen by citizens in a primary and the state legislature would pledge to elect that winner. Many states copied the Oregon System, but public demands for reform were not quelled until it was mandated federally. The primary argument for making U.S. Senators directly elected by the public was to prevent elitist clubs of state legislatures from electing puppets to serve their own interests.
Since 1913, U.S. Senators have been directly elected by the people. Today, only five states have split delegations, those whose two seats are not held by the same party: Maine, Montana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. This is the lowest number of split delegations since the direct election of Senators began.
The state governments are the other half of the equation. Each state elects its own members to the state legislature. Each state has a bicameral legislature, with an upper and lower house, and a governor serving as the executive. Nebraska is the only exception, as it has a unicameral – one house – legislature, that is also officially nonpartisan.
While the federal government has oversight on national issues and writes, executes, and upholds laws that abide by the Constitution, the states have their own constitution as well. Additionally, states have their own prerogatives on certain initiatives, such as the legalization of marijuana, gay marriage, right-to-work laws, minimum wage increases, and a myriad of other stances. Central oversight can trump state governance in certain cases. One such example was the nationwide legalization of gay marriage after a Supreme Court ruling in 2015. Before that ruling, the states were allowed to decide the legality of the issue for themselves.
Another example of federalism in action is abortion. After the overturning of Roe V. Wade in 2022, the issue has not outlawed or prohibited abortion on a national scale. Rather, the power to decide criminality, trimester limits, and state funding for procedures, among other tenets of the issues, was returned for the states to decide for themselves.
Since citizens can elect their representatives on the local, state, and federal levels, it leads many to believe that the U.S. is a democracy. However, since the American government is composed of co-equally supreme levels, run by representatives, over whom, at the ballot box, the population has complete control, we also have elements of a republic.
The Founding Fathers saw the failures of systems that were pure democracies and pure republics. Thus, the U.S. has a hybrid system of government called a democratic-republic, a facet of our country that led to the U.S. being called “The Great Experiment.”
Confederalism Vs. Federalism
The U.S. was initially a confederation of states, rather than a federalist government. A confederation is typically a loose union of states or regions that are beholden to a strong central power. The Articles of Confederation were the first drafts for American independence, which created a unicameral Congress made up of delegates from each state. Each state had just one vote in Congress, regardless of its population, and any act of Congress required nine of the thirteen states to pass. Amendments to the Articles required unanimous consent of the states. However, despite a stronger central power on paper, Congress had little authority to act on a national or international scale without near-unanimous approval from the states.
Sensing worse dysfunction and lack of organization, the Founding Fathers returned to the drawing board. James Madison’s Virginia Plan provided for a stronger national government with three branches: executive (president), legislative (Congress), and judicial (Supreme Court).
Roger Sherman presented the Connecticut Compromise, which allowed for the bicameral legislature of the House and Senate, with proportional representation in the former and equal in the latter.
However, like any other form of government, federalism has not been perfect. The U.S. has had its fair share of interpretations on just where the boundaries between regional and central governments lie. The timeline below shows an evolution of American federalism throughout the ages.
Dual Federalism
Dual federalism is a system in which delineated powers between the levels of government are clearly defined and both can act with little to no intervention from the other. The Bill of Rights – the first ten Amendments to the Constitution – contains the Tenth Amendment, which stipulates that no powers expressly granted to the federal government belong to the states. This became most apparent in the Dred Scott V. Sanford Supreme Court decision, in which Dred Scott, a black slave, was taken by his owners from Missouri, a slave state, to Illinois, a free state. He later sued for his freedom, stating that since he was brought to a free state, he was no longer enslaved. The Supreme Court decided that since slaves’ rights were not granted in the Constitution, the federal government had the oversight on his freedom, rather than the state and local governments.
Another case that highlighted the issue of dual federalism was the Plessy V. Ferguson Supreme Court decision, which insisted that segregation laws instilled by the states did not violate the Constitution, as long as facilities and services were “separate but equal.”
Cooperative Federalism
Cooperative federalism in the U.S. stipulates that the aforementioned Tenth Amendment does provide any additional powers to the states. Instead, cooperative federalism works under the assumption that the federal and state governments are partners, wherein the federal government creates laws for the states to enforce. One Supreme Court case that echoes this principle was Garcia V. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority. The ruling stated that Congress had the power to extend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) to the state governments, requiring employers to pay a minimum wage and overtime payments to their employees. The case overturned a previous decision, National League of Cities V. Usery, which established that federal regulation of state and local activities “in areas of traditional government functions” would violate the Tenth Amendment.
New Federalism
New Federalism is a relatively new concept that seeks to gradually return powers to the states. Championed originally by President Richard Nixon (R-CA), the movement has persisted into the 21st Century. President Ronald Reagan (R-CA) also heralded the idea with his “devolution revolution,” most notably by his idea of block grants. Previously, the federal government granted funds to the states categorically, which limited their freedom in funding specific programs. Reagan’s block grants allowed the states to spend federal grant money at their own discretion.
A large tenet of New Federalism is the question of whether the federal government can constitutionally command the states to execute federal policy. Courts have combatted this with the anti-commandeering principle, which states that “the federal government cannot require states or state officials to adopt or enforce federal law.” In 1982, New York sued the federal government in New York V. United States on the grounds of the principle relating to congressional regulation of state waste management.
Most recently, in Murphy V. National Collegiate Athletic Association (2018), New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) sued the federal government for their prohibition on sports gambling. The courts adhered to the anti-commandeering principle, which then allowed states to regulate the practice at their own discretion.
This concept is where we are in the timeline of American federalism, as we’ve seen it applied to marijuana, gun possession, agriculture, and other forms of regulation.
Conclusion
In short, the American federalist system is unique in its composition in that it is a hybrid form of government built on the philosophies of observers from the 16th and 17th Centuries. The federal government has three branches and Congress consists of two houses, which give proportional and equal representation to the states. Additionally, the states have their own miniature forms of federalism, wherein the executive (governor) does not have absolute power over the democratically elected representatives of the state legislature and vice versa.
