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FEDERAL NATURE OF THE CONSTITUTION AND STATES RIGHTS

FEDERAL NATURE OF THE CONSTITUTION AND STATES RIGHTS. LARGE STATES VS. SMALL STATES. Connecticut or Great Compromise. New Jersey Plan favoured by small states Virginia Plan favoured by states with larger populations Convention thus deadlocked

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FEDERAL NATURE OF THE CONSTITUTION AND STATES RIGHTS

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  1. FEDERAL NATURE OF THE CONSTITUTION AND STATES RIGHTS LARGE STATES VS. SMALL STATES

  2. Connecticut or Great Compromise • New Jersey Plan favoured by small states • Virginia Plan favoured by states with larger populations • Convention thus deadlocked • Compromise involved having two chambers one, where states would be represented proportionally to population

  3. Great Compromise • Other house, states would be represented equally, regardless of population • President is also elected state by state, and some states have more influence over the presidential primaries despite their small size (front-loading) • Constitution can only be amended with three-quarters of state legislatures agreement • The three-fifths compromise • Who did best out of this compromise??

  4. FEDERALISM • ‘A theory of government by which political power is divided between a national government and state governments, each having their own area of substantive jurisdiction’

  5. Why is federalism suited to the USA? • Because country is so diverse • Because of its size • Because of the history – the states came first

  6. Federalism is not mentioned in the constitution but is written in the following ways: • Enumerated powers • Implied powers • Federal and state governments are given concurrent powers • 10th Amendment • Supreme Court to be umpire of any disagreements between federal and state governments

  7. CHANGING FEDERAL AND STATE RELATIONS • Federal-state relations have changed as America has changed • Initially, following Independence, the state governments exercised most political power • However, in the last part of the 19th and early part of the 20th century the role of the federal government steadily increased

  8. What caused the federal government’s role to grow? • Westward expansion • Growth of population • Industrialisation • Modern methods of communication • The Great Depression • Foreign policy • Supreme Court decisions • Constitutional amendments

  9. PHASES OF FEDERALISM1. DUAL FEDERALISM (1780-1920) or Layer-Cake Federalism • The period when state governments had most power • Focus was on states rights • Federal government role was restricted to money, war and peace. • Little known presidents e.g. Ulysses Grant and James Polk • Federal and state governments had distinct areas of responsibility

  10. CO-OPERATIVE FEDERALISM or Marble-cake federalism (1930-1960) • Federal and state governments co-operated to solve problems of poverty, health, education, transport and national security • 4 Democratic Presidents during this era: Roosevelt, Truman, JFK and Johnson • New federal depts: Defense (49), Health, Education and Welfare (53), Housing and Urban Development (65) and Transport (66). • Federal government allocated categorical grants – schemes where it was stipulated how federal tax dollars were to be spent by the states (measures had a centripetal effect) • By the Clinton era, the federal government was giving $200 billion to the states, over 90% in the form of categorical grants.

  11. NEW FEDERALISM • Since the 60s we have the rise of block grants - i.e. money given to the states by the federal government to be used at their discretion within broad policy areas (measures have a centrifugal effect) • Era of 4 Republican presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush • During Clinton’s 1996 state of the union address he stated: ’The era of big government is over’

  12. Why did ‘big government’ become unpopular? • Was felt federal government programmes had not worked and were wasteful • Social problems like drugs, gun crime etc had not been solved • A general distrust of ‘Washington politicians’ since Watergate and Vietnam • Supreme Court decisions started to turn away from federal government • Republican presidencies

  13. Federalism under GW • How has Bush brought the trend of Republican presidents with regards to federal-state relations to an end? • Give the 5 main reasons for this expansion of federal government and include examples of the policies • Give details of the other 3 examples of ‘big-government conservatism’ in recent times.

  14. CONSEQUENCES OF FEDERALISM • Legal consequences • Political consequences • Economic consequences • Regionalism

  15. Pro’s and cons • PROS • Permits diversity • Creates more access points in government • Better protection of individual rights • States become ‘policy laboratories’ • Well suited to a geographically large nation

  16. CONS • Can mask economic and racial inequalities • Frustrates the national will, making solving problems harder • Source of conflict and controversy • Overly bureaucratic

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