What is Federalism?

Abstract
This paper will illustrate what is the meaning of federalism and what it does for us. I will talk about how it helps our political system and if it does us any good. How has federalism changed the behavior to our American society? Does federalism affect us or does it help us see a better political view? Things like this is something I would be covering in my paper. Everything you need to know about federalism I would be talking about it in this paper.

Federalism, what does federalism mean to you? Federalism is a political system that helps the government maintain independence for everyone. This means that the government has used a new way to help out the government to handle the independence and to set a good federation for the people. Federalism to me is to help out the people maintain a good set of rules and not have the government handle all the rules for the people. They need to let the people know that others, other than the government, are out there to help them and protect them of their rights.

American federalism was created on 1787 when the constitution was made. They did not want the confederal or the unitary models for the government that is when they chose to go with federalism. If they would have chosen the cofederal it would mean that the member states would be the ones to make up for the union which would be for the respective states and not the government. If the unitary models would have been chosen that would mean that government would be sovereign to states. But they chose federalism because, the people get to keep their sovereignty and the power is divided to the government and some to the states.

American federalism is a dynamic, multi-dimensional process that has economic, administrative, and political aspects as well as constitutional ones. Today Federalism is still on and it is still helping the government with their independence. Some of the things that we face today because of Federalism would be: unfunded mandates, constitutional issues, public finance etc. From back then to now things have changed and federalism has been impacting us in many ways.

Some of the issues as I have already stated above, are not too good for us because of the federalization. Unfunded mandates are an issue because there is not enough to suppose federal priorities. The states are require to act but not fund to finance anything that is why they call it the unfunded mandates. Let’s move on, as for the Constitutional issues we have them because restrict the limits of federal authority. They went as far as to not allow any weapons near school buildings. The Supreme Court felt like they exceeded their constitutional authority and decided to take down some of the federal authorities. Public Finance is that they do not have enough to be financing everything they do for the citizens. They have to fund education, trash disposals, crime etc and it is taking a toll on them. It has gotten bad that the government has been innovative to these things because it is too much.

Some of the factors that shaped the American political behavior would be family, gender, race and ethnicity. I say family because no matter how kids grow up to be they will follow in parent’s footsteps. If your family is very political then chances are you will be too and you will be rooting for the same things that they root for. It is like whatever views your family has on something you will grow up and have those views too. Gender is something to look at too because the same way you grow up to follow your parents views you will go to where you feel you are being understood. Women tend to vote for the candidate who they feel are supporting more of their issues while men just vote on what they believe is fair to the people.

Women go to where they being helped and they feel like they would do more for them than the other candidate. Race and ethnicity is another factor because they see it as the black Americans vote more for democratic, Latinos go more for democratic as well but not strongly like the blacks. Cuban Americans vote republicans while Mexicans vote democratic. All races have different views and while some vote for the same they all feel different and some feelings are stronger than others. While there is not really a good amount of evidence to prove this, this is still a good example of how it usually works.

The relationship between the states and the US government influences the creation of the American policies because they come together strongly and make the changes that they need so that policies are understood and respected. These two get together because since the federalism divides their powers they will need to come together as one to use the power that they have to change and make stronger policies that would work for America. Just like the polices enacted by the government must not mess with the federal law; a government is subject to the legal environment created by the states constitutions and statuses.

In conclusion, Federalism is a way to hold the states together by giving away powers deridingly so that they can each do their job without any more trouble. They need more creations so that they can keep America good and up like everyone wants it to be. The more federalism grows the more we hope it will get better for us. Therefore, Federalism is and will always be a main factor in the roles of the US government and the states.

References
Yale Law Journal. Apr2014, Vol. 123 Issue 6, p1996-2043. 48p Political Quarterly. Jul-Sep2012, Vol. 83 Issue 3, p541-550. 10p. Political Studies Review. Sep2012, Vol. 10 Issue 3, p431-432. 2p. Journal of Urban Affairs. 2000, Vol. 22 Issue 1, p65. 20p.