federalism

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Federalism The United States Government is beloved to all Americans, in the simple fact that all men are created equal and all men are given equal opportunity, to aspire to achieve success and make their dreams come true. Although the percentage of people who achieve all of their goals in life is fairly small, they have the freedom to chase them and America for the most part is a pretty content place. The “law of the land” that sets the standards for our rights and privileges is the U.S. Constitution. As pretty and proper as the U.S. Constitution sounds, there has always been and always will be some conflicts and concerns about different laws and amendments and even values that make a part of the sacred text of America. One of the major conflicts when writing the Constitution was power. They weren’t sure what to do with it, or how to handle it. America was so big with all different states a having all different values. America was not one, it was thirteen individual states who each wanted a piece of the power. This is where the idea of Federalism comes into play. The definition of Federalism goes as follows; Federalism is the philosophy that power should be divided between the central powers and all its constituents. In other words the power of the United States should not all be in the hands of the national government, each state should have a say in the way that they want their own state to run. Every state wants to progress in a different way, and every state wants to progress at a different speed. However when problems get to large for a single state run government to handle, the national (federal) government will proceed to step in and set forth the necessary measures to control the situation. The founding fathers were quite concerned when writing the Constitution about what the breakdown of power should be. They did not want the central government to hold too much power like it had in England, but they needed a federal government stronger than the Articles of Confederation to keep the states together. When reading the Constitution you see many examples of compromises between the power of the federal government and the power of the states. There are limits set on for states, limits set on Congress, and... ... middle of paper ... ...so the Senate was given the majority rule over any treaty that has been negotiated by the president. In order for the treaty to be ratified it must be done by at least a two-thirds vote by the Senate. This did also give the President a bit of power himself. He was now allowed the power to veto legislation. In conclusion the idea of Federalism is both very prevalent and very necessary to the way America functions. It was ratified in 1781 and is still used as the law of the land to date. Every facet of life is largely based on compromise, whether it is a relationship both friend, family, and lover, or on the job, or even with yourself. Sometimes you just have to meet in the middle, and sometime somebody needs to have more power so everything works out for the best. That’s what Federalism is all about, balancing the power between the federal government and the states. The United States is not a dictatorship or run by tyranny, everyone including the normal citizens of America have the freedom to have a say and speak out about what’s best, however leaders are necessary. All this is covered in the Constitution under the laws and regulations of Federalism.

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