Essay About Federalism

706 Words2 Pages

Federalism was initially defined as the arrangement of powers that came from the people. The powers were divided at the national and state level government. In America’s history, federalism began with the idea that people granted power to the states which then granted power to the national government. As a result, this produced a weak national government. To overcome this, U.S Constitution was created to build a powerful national government, but at the same time provided rights to the state and its people. Federalism provided a good structure of government for United States. It made it easier to run a country as big as United States by separating powers at different levels. With its strengths, the federal system came with its weaknesses. Over …show more content…

In United States, there are fifty states which all have different laws regarding drugs, violence, marriage and divorce. There are different federal laws and state laws that exist about guns, same-sex marriages, and medicinal marihuana. For example, Colorado and Washington legalized the use of marijuana going against the federal government which prohibits marijuana. The state law going against federal law shows how states ignore federal laws and exercise their own regulations. Furthermore, Supreme Court passed a law approving same-sex marriage which many states have trouble …show more content…

A current controversy over federalism involved the Affordable Care Act signed in 2010 which wanted to expand Medicaid to assist poor. Many states did not want to practice this law. Therefore the Supreme Court made the decision legalizing Medicaid expansion but also marked the taking away of Medicaid funding from states that denied the expansion as unconstitutional. Federalism will continue to play an important role in defining the boundaries of state and national laws. In US history, federalism started from a weak national government, and as it evolved it continued to strengthen national government. In the future, federalism will continue to strengthen and stabilize our

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