Federalism | BRI’s Homework Help Series

0:00 -How can you ensure local interests are represented in as large and diverse a country as the United States? That’s a question the nation has wrestled with since the ratification of the constitution. -It’s tricky, but this question goes to the core of understanding America’s experiment of self-government. Where is the proper line dividing the states and national government? Today, we discuss the principle of federalism.

0:23 [music] -If I were to ask you where you live, what would you say? Maybe your neighborhood, your town, or city, the United States. There are quite a few layers to that question.

0:44 Whose laws and regulations do you have to follow? All of them? What is this exactly? That is at least in part, federalism. -In 1781, the United States ratified its first constitution, The Articles of Confederation. The hope of this league of friendship was that the sovereign states would be unified yet preserve control over decisions within their borders.

1:05 The idea was that the country would collectively make decisions on things like treaties, but otherwise, the states would be left to their own devices. -Though the national government achieves some notable successes, it soon became apparent to some that this loose confederation couldn’t last. The weak national government was unable to provide solutions to several crises during the 1780s, such as Shay’s Rebellion

1:27 and Trade Wars between states, which led James Madison and others to call for reform. -A key problem for the articles was that the national government cannot directly rule citizens. For example, it could not tax them directly but instead, depended on requests for the sovereign states to tax their citizens and then hand the money over to the national government, something that most states rarely did.

1:49 Plus, the national government did not have a separation of powers or checks and balances since it had no judiciary and a very weak executive elected by the legislature. The Congress only had one house and all states, regardless of size, had one vote. -The result was the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 and a new constitution.

2:10 One goal for this new constitution was to develop a system of government that would be strong enough to permanently cement the union of states without letting it size limit its ability to connect and respond to the needs of local interests and individuals. That it did. As one of the great achievements of the constitution was that it balanced state, national, and local interests by creating a national government with limited ends

2:31 and reserving police powers and local control to the states. However, not everyone was convinced. -Some were concerned that the new government would quickly become consolidated at the national level. These opponents to the constitution called anti-federalists were worried that the concentrating of power would cripple the ability of the states to respond effectively to the needs of their citizens.

2:52 -One prominent anti-federalist writing under the pen name of Brutus argued against the proposed system under the constitution warning, "It is true this government is limited to certain objects, or to speak more properly, some small degree of power is still left to the states, but a little attention to the powers vested in the general government, will convince every candidate man, that if it is capable of being executed,

3:13 all that is reserved for the individual states must very soon be annihilated." -James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and other supporters of the constitution called Federalists pushed back. In a series of essays called The Federalist Papers, Madison and Hamilton detailed their defense of the constitution. Specifically, in Federalist 39,

3:34 Madison argued that the several parts of the constitution, namely the Senate Electoral College and the amendment process all preserve the state’s voice and allow their interests to be represented at the national level. -Eventually, the Federalists triumph through a state by state or federal ratification process no less, and thus, the new constitution was ratified.

3:56 The fight for balance between the state and national government was far from over, from the fights over and over vocation, a civil war and arguments over government spending in civil rights. Debates over the appropriate constitutional balance between state and national power has been at the center of many of America’s most contentious political moment. -How can we ensure our local interests are represented at the national level?

4:19 Well, at least in part, by mindfully debating the principle of federalism. In other words, what trajectory the future holds is up to you. Thanks so much for watching, guys. Be sure to subscribe and like. -Comment down below.