The American Federal System of Government
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The American Federal System of Government
The American Federal System of Government
Stephanie Rodriguez
Dr. Nichole Boutteheiniluoma
The American Federal system and federalism are what define the main structure of today's American government, the federal system divides the powers of government between National and State governments. It was established by the Framers of the US constitution to make sure that the power was not given to just one central government, this division provides a balance of power and responsibilities between both governments but under federalism each government has limits between each other and sovereignty is shared. As time has passed federalism has evolved and the two major type of federalisms that dominate are Dual Federalism and Cooperative Federalism. The Interstate Commerce Clause, Necessary and Proper clause and the 10th amendment are important parts of the Federal Government.
The federal system was created by the Framers in the Constitution of 1787, it was a very long and thoughtful process because it was hard to write down every single that they wanted to express in the constitution without contradicting themselves and without leaving an unbalance in powers between the governments that would run the states. There plan for the new Federal government was to divide the power between National and State governments but it was still noted in the constitution by the Supremacy Clause that states that the authority of the National government is the Supreme law of the land. The powers of the National Government are listed in Article 1 of the Constitution. There main goal was to make sure that this form of government would not allow any person to be able to take control of both State and Federal governments. They also agreed that having elections for both National and State government would help increase people's interest in their government. In this constitution the Tenth amendment was put in to the first article along side with the federal government and states "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, not prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." ( Sherri Mora, pg.60)
The Division of power or Dual Federalism was made very specifically to help maintain balance the National Government is known as the Supreme law of the land and has certain powers they are allow to act on. The specified powers of the National Government are, being able to punish offences against the laws of the nation, laying taxes and collect taxes for the common defense and the general welfare, establish courts inferior to the U.S Supreme Courts,organize arm, and discipline state militias when told to suppress invasions, regulate the armed forces, regulate interstate and foreign commerce, declare war, administer the capitol district and military bases, provide and maintain a Navy, develop road and postal services, punish piracies...
