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Examples Of Dual Federalism

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Federalism was originally meant to divide the power of state and federal government within the United States, protecting rights of the state level governments and preventing a majority from receiving total control. Federalism has existed in many ways over the course of American history. The balance of influence between state and federal government has had many shifts. Dual federalism is explained by how the constitution originally outlined federalism. National government dealt with our foreign policy, commerce and national defense, the states were left to individually deal with economic and social issues. This was effective in insuring the needs of smaller groups of citizens from being ignored and unfulfilled. The flaws with this system arose …show more content…

The northern states of the union along with the federals could not accept the southern states renouncement of the union; it was necessary for all states on American soil to participate to operate successfully. The union’s victory in the civil war empowered the federal governments authority over constitutional rights of individual states. The fourteenth amendment was ratified after the war; four clauses were applied to bound state power over the citizens. State and federal citizenship for everyone not considering of race and origins, second a state could not infringe on the rights of American citizens, also a person could not be deprived of life liberty and property without due process of law, lastly no persons could be deprived protection of the law. You were an American citizen before you were citizen in a state and had rights not governed by the individual …show more content…

If state and federal government reach an agreement on goals to improve the economy the state would be provided federal funds to reach this goal. The construction of interstate highways, states constructed highways using federal funds and standards is an example. States turned their policies to the federal standard in order to receive restricted treatment when funds were distributed. States choose to comply with a federal drinking age or speed limit policy in order to receive funds. Grants were now offered for a greater area of policies. Grants began to be handed down to smaller units of government taking power away from the state governments. Leading to problems concerning management, cooperation, and accountability. President Nixon attempted to fix this by compacting small grant programs into larger consolidations, for the state to decide on. By the eighties President Reagan corrected federal spending, his goal was to alleviate the power that the federal government possessed. He implemented tax cuts and rises to lower the availability of grant-in-aid programs, in order to return power to the states; this is new

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