16 Federalism: How should power be structurally divided?
16 Federalism: How should power be structurally divided?
Learning Objectives
- Explain the concept of federalism
- Identify some of the powers and responsibilities of federal, state, and local governments
- Examine how responsibilities differ and powers overlap
- Discover how federalism evolved in the US
The US republic divides governmental power in two general ways–vertically and horizontally. Horizontally, we share power among three branches of government—the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. Vertically, power is shared between levels of government: national and subnational (state, parish, county, local, special district). In the United States, the term federal government refers to government at the national level.
Federalism is an institutional arrangement creating relatively autonomous levels of government, each able to act directly on behalf of the people with the authority granted to it.[1] What does this mean? People agree (consent) to cooperate, to write some rules (a constitution) defining how they will work together and hold each other accountable, and to set up a framework (branches and levels of governmental power) keeping people in control of the government by providing numerous points of access. Federalism increases access opportunities.
The second characteristic common to all federal systems is a written contract/constitution that cannot be changed without the substantial consent of subnational governments. In the American federal system, the twenty-seven amendments added to the Constitution since its adoption resulted from an arduous process requiring approval by two-thirds of both houses of Congress and three-fourths of the states. This supermajority requirement ensures no changes to the Constitution may occur without broad support within Congress (the people’s representatives) and among states.
Third, the constitutions of federal systems formally allocate legislative, judicial, and executive authority to the various levels of government to ensure each has some degree of autonomy from the other. Under the U.S. Constitution, the president assumes executive power, Congress exercises legislative powers, and the federal courts (e.g., U.S. district courts, appellate courts, and the Supreme Court) assume judicial powers. In each of the fifty states, a governor assumes executive authority, a state legislature makes laws, and state-level courts (e.g., trial courts, intermediate appellate courts, and supreme courts) possess judicial authority.
According to political scientist Richard Neustadt, the system of separation of powers and checks and balances encourages cooperation rather than control. Neustadt notes the Constitutional Convention “created a government of separated institutions sharing powers.”[2]
While each level of government is somewhat independent of the others (dual federalism), a great deal of interaction occurs (cooperative federalism). The ability of the federal and state governments to achieve their objective