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What Is Federalism?

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Federalism Federalism is a term that is timeworn, but is quite important in American history due to its lineage and how it affects government-both Federal and State. American Federalism is not a static set of arrangements, frozen in time by the United States Constitution but a dynamic, ever-changing, multi-dimensional process that has economic, administrative and political aspects as well as constitutional ones (Katz, 1997). So, what is Federalism? Federalism is a system that power is distributed between the Federal Government and the States. Years ago, many new Americans were scared because they feared that the new government might turn out to be another form of a monarchy. Also, the small states were quite scared that the larger states would overrule them in this new form of government (Wilson, Dilulio, Bose, 2014). So, when the Constitution was approved, certain provisions were added to the Constitution to ensure a balance between the larger states and the smaller ones (American Government, Wilson, Dilulio, Bose, 2014). As stated earlier, the power between the Federal Government and the State Government is shared. Much of the power the Federal Government has stems directly from the Constitution. The Constitution tells the states pretty much what they can do as well. An example of what the Federal Government can do is the ability to print and coin money, as well as the capacity to conduct trade with other nations, along with the ability to declare war. In this section, examples are to be provided to explain about Federalism and its importance in today’s world. This first example has to do with the delegation of powers which is correctly distributed in the Constitution. One such power is the ability to print and coin money. Alexander Hamilton (The first

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